My War
by SpartanHolpilte
Summary: Matthew Drastly, a recruit from the slums, a boy made a man through the burden of war. Spotted by the Army Rangers he plays as a small pawn in a massive war. His luck see's him survive the impossible and achieve great feats as he ventures further through the war. Yet, his luck, is his curse.
1. Burnt Back

Matthew Drastly

I woke it wasn't a nice awaking, for it was the sound of gunfire. I cursed under my breath as I dragged myself out of the hospital bed. Outside my fellow recruits were at the firing range, the guns we used were a step down from what the deployed armed forces used, but they did the job. I wasn't due out of hospital for another 2 days, I rubbed the now scar on my shoulder where a bullet passed through, the downside of second hand weapons. My rifle at the time had been missing part of its butt yet my instructor didn't mind it.

2 days ago I had been run through muddy water up onto a beach and placed under pressure while firing on targets with live ammo. The water and sand caused my gun to jam, after spending several minutes taking apart my rifle and putting it back together I took aim again. This time though when I pulled the trigger the bullet shot backwards, it was partly my fault as I had placed a few parts the wrong way around when I was putting my rifle back together.

Now to me my arm felt great. I swung it around a few times to warm up the joint and muscles. I winced a few times before stopping. I looked around the room to find no doctors or other patients. I smiled to my self and proceeded to preform fighting actions in front of a mirror. I knew it was corny at the time but I hadn't had the time in the past to admire the growth in my muscles. After a few rounds of flexing in the mirror I returned to my bed next to the window. The sun was beginning to rise. I watched it rise as the other recruits jogged off in line. Probably going to do some runs through the obstacle course. I once again returned to the mirror to admire my muscle tone.

"Damn I look good." I said to myself.

I flexed a bit more before I heard a giggle from behind me. I turned around not breaking my pose and saw a nurse standing in a doorway behind me. I blushed a bit and broke out into a little grin.

"Yes, you do look good." Giggled the nurse.

I realized I hadn't had any contact with a woman for 6 months. I felt excited and my body showed it a bit too much. The nurse giggled some more as she noticed it too. My body was growing tired of holding a flexed pose. Feeling quiet embarrassed I stood up and looked away. I took a quick glance at the nurse again she was about a 7 or 8. She walked up close to me I began feeling nervous. 6 months was a long time without physical contact with a woman. The last time was with my girlfriend, and technically I was still in a relationship but I couldn't resist. I looked up, well technically I looked down because I was a towering 6ft 4. I looked the nurse straight in the eyes she had blue eyes with green specks. I bent my neck to the side as I grabbed her waist and pulled her closer. Our lips connected, I felt her hand run down from my chest past my abs and nearly reaching into my pants. I stopped making out with her and looked her in the eyes. Her hand didn't reach into my pants, and she put on an evil smile. Her other hand had an injector in it. She stabbed me in the back of the neck with it injecting the fluid. I groaned as I stepped away from her.

"Bitch. Ah god. For fuck sake." I moaned.

"Don't worry honey, I'm just as disappointed as you are." She replied.

I sat down on a chair behind me, still rubbing the back on my neck.

"Hmmm, your lasting longer than you should've." She mentioned.

Her accent was defiantly inner colony. She had the skin tone for it as well. She looked about 19. She was probably trying to prove something to her rich family or something. Then her statement hit me.

"Wait. Are you trying to knock me out?" I asked.

At this point she was becoming worried. What she didn't realize is that I grew up on Levosia. It may be a pro-insurrectionist planet but I hated it. Mainly because growing up there had forced me into the drug business to keep alive. Those drugs, which I had taken regularly, now had a lasting effect on me of high tolerance.

"Who wanted me drugged?" I grunted as I stood up straight.

Two men entered the room wearing ONI spook overalls. The looked startled to see me standing.

"You were supposed to drug him!" shouted one of the men, obviously directed at the nurse.

"I did. I gave him more than a full dosage. He hasn't seemed to effect him." The nurse said in her defense.

I looked around for a weapon, just like I had been taught about a week ago. All I saw were a pair of bandage scissors which couldn't harm a fly. Meanwhile one of the ONI spooks revealed a shock baton. I stood there helpless. I had been in a situation like this back on Levosia during a drug run gone bad but even then I had a knife with me. The ONI spook obviously was scared of attacking me; I used this to my advantage.

"Recruit! I order you to stand down!" The spook yelled.

I took a step forward, the spook to a step backwards. The other spook was at a loss of what to do. The spook with the baton lunged at me, it was a clumsy lunge which ended up with me side stepping and knocking him to the floor. The shock baton rolled across the floor before I picked it up. The nurse had long since run out of the room, most probably to get help. Well help for the spooks, not me.

I was still shirtless when I opened the door to a winter's day on Reach. My first breath of fresh air for 3 days happened to be one when I was on the run. Outside the medical complex was a convoy of ONI trucks. Guards who had been resting or having a smoke stood dumbstruck. A man got out of the lead truck looked at me.

"That's him you idiots! After him!" The man yelled.

That was my cue to start running and so I did. I started towards my barracks, which was 2 kilometers on the other side of camp. I went full sprint as guards pulled out their shock batons while yelling at each other. The guards were in a mess as I ran in-between two of them. The large green grass field in front of me was used for practice marches. Right now it had a very thin layer of pure white snow. I bound across it barefoot with ONI guards in pursuit. I never knew I could sprint at this speed; I must have been doing 20 kph. The feeling of running without the heavy burden of armour was great and I found myself more agile.

"Hey! Kid! Stop! We just want to talk!" shouted the man who was obviously in control of the guards.

I looked over my shoulder to see that some of the guards had been smart enough to get into the trucks and drive after me. I slid to a stop and turned around. The guards then proceeded to make a semi-circle round me. They were all armed with batons. I turned of the shock baton that I had in my hand before taking a combat stance.

"You want me! All you had to do was ask nicely!" I yelled in the direction of the man who was hanging on the side of one of the trucks.

"Now I guess I don't like you. I'm not going without a fight!" I then yelled towards all of the guards.

At this current moment in time, the other recruits came jogging around the corner. The first rows didn't notice the stand off but before long the recruits were shouting my name. The Staff Sargent attempted to gain control over his recruits but without success.

Two guards began making their way towards me, their batons raised. They closed in on me. I took a step back before lunging at one. I missed completely and got a shock to my back, I attempted to rise to defend myself but I was shocked again and again and again. I could feel the electricity run though my veins. The guard enchanced the pain my shocking different places on my back leaving burn marks. This time I cursed my resistance I acquired to shock batons, courtesy of the lovey Levosia police.

"You fuckers! I fucking rip your balls off!" I screamed.

The guards lifted me with my hands behind my back. One of the guards leaned close to my ear.

"ONI is going to rip your balls off kid." He whispered before chuckling.

I smacked the back of my head into his face breaking his nose. The guard cried out and released his hold on me. I took a step back so I was behind the guard clutching his nose on the floor. I took a shock baton from his belt and shocked him in the neck for longer than would be healthy. The guard screamed before passing out. My fellow recruits cheered as this happened. Out of the corner of my eye I think I even saw the Staff Sergeant grin at the sign of private security being knocked out by a UNSC army recruit. I even saw one of the junior trainers have his holopad out videoing the event. I dropped the shock baton and raised my hands. Turning to the group of recruits I shouted:

"UNSC Army recruit, whoops private security ass!" Imitating a news anchor.

The recruits cheered and I think the Staff Sergeant laughed a bit. Soon my world went dark as I was struck with 5 shock batons.

If I didn't mention before, my name is Matthew Drastly.

_Hey guys, I'm excited to be writing this story and I have a few ideas up my sleeve, but as always reviews really help me._

_I would like to hear your opinions on what parts of my writing you guys like and don't like._

_Hope you enjoy!_

_SpartanHoplite_


	2. Heroes to Friends

I once again woke on a hospital bed. All I could see was the ceiling and it was spinning. That wasn't a good sign. I groaned as I lifted myself up and lent back against the wall. The air in this room was stale and all the light was artificial due to the fact that there were no windows. Several spots on my back stung as I stretched, it was the burn marks where the guards had shocked me. There were two guards in seats, which were next to my bed. There were two more beds in the room. One was empty but the bed at the far end of the room had a guard in it. I recognized the mark on the guard's neck. It was the place where I held the shock baton for too long. I laughed out loud.

"Quiet you." One of the guards muttered.

The same guard stood up and walked to one of the machines next to my bed. He pressed one of the buttons a few times and I started to feel myself drifting away.

"Bastard…" I muttered before I went black again.

I woke up again. I was sitting in a chair, with a full Army dress uniform on. I rubbed my eyes as they went blurry. I picked the small bits of sleep out of my eyes before looking where I was. I knew where I was as soon as I saw the window. Sydney, Australia. This is where my grandfather migrated from when he moved to Levosia, I wonder if he knew how much of a shithole would become. Sometimes I imagine what my life would be like if he stayed on Earth.

"Corporal! Glad to see that you are finally awake." Said a voice.

"What? Corporal? Sir or Ma'am, there must be a misunderstanding." I muttered.

I turned around in the chair to see a Major sitting in a chair. I quickly stood up and saluted. If this was the man that had been shocked 20 times then I didn't want to piss him off more.

"At ease Corporal. Please sit down. We need to, how would you say… discuss recent events." The Major had a slight threatening tone.

"Yes Sir." I said as I took a seat.

The Major stared at me for a couple of moments. His eyes examined my body and then he looked me straight in the eye. The Major had a vibe that he knew to many things. I looked into his eyes and I knew right then and there that he had see too much. For a long 5 seconds we stared each other down. Then he broke off the stare and chuckled.

"You have her eyes." He muttered.

"I'm sorry? Who's eyes are we talking about here?" I questioned.

"It doesn't matter now. Yet I need to ask something from you Corporal." The Major asked.

"Sir?"

"Do you feel different, you know to the other recruits. During training are you faster or stronger than any of them?"

I sat there dumbstruck. Why would he be asking me these things? I didn't even know how to answer the question. I never though myself different to the other soldiers, sure I could knock one or two down without effort but some matched up to me. I ran generally at the same speed, though we had never raced. I had completed the obstacle course in just above average time but that wasn't uncommon. It had been about a minute after the Major had asked the question when I answered.

"No Sir. From what I can remember I am just above average. Though some of the other recruits match me at that."

The Major hummed to himself for seconds before reaching into his desk. I took this time to sum the Major up. He looked about mid-fifties, ish. He was wearing Naval dress uniform but he had ODST shoulder armour on. His face looked like it had seen better days. His eyes had bags under them; his cheeks were nearly complete white and his lips looked chapped.

"Is there something on my face solider?" Said the Major sternly.

"No Sir, just staring off into space." I replied.

The Major nodded and returned to going through the numerous holopads. He was most defiantly from Earth, German by the accent. His hair was a mix of white and blonde showing his age. The Major now looked satisfied as he found the holopad he was looking for.

"Corporal, do you excel in any particular weaponry?"

"Yes" I replied without thinking.

"And that would be?"

"Sniper Sir. Best out of my group, set the camp record twice in 6 months."

"Ah I thought so. Well I'll tell you one thing before you leave. You have very rare DNA. You are related down the line to someone very special to the UNSC and the war-effort." The Major added.

The Major took 10 more seconds to look at me before saying:

"Dismissed."

"Sir?"

"Ah yes I forgot. Corporal you will finish your training here in Sydney before being chosen by either ODST's or Army Rangers. You won't have a choice I'm afraid, direct order from HIGHCOM at the top of this tower. There will be a solider waiting for you in the lobby. Dismissed." The Major finished before turning away to work on the holopad.

I saluted and walked out of the room. I was in a corridor that was it. I had no idea where I was and the corridor was just plain. Concrete and artificial lighting that would make an architect cry. I didn't know the way to the elevator. I did a quick jog down each path, nothing. That was until I heard people coming. It was two ONI spooks, not the ones that I had made a mess of but just ONI spooks. They walked closer down not seeing me at all.

"Oi spooks. Which way to the elevator?" I impolitely asked.

They stood there offended. I didn't care for it; I had had enough of ONI for a lifetime. Then the spooks tried to quickly walk past me, I moved to block their path and moved closer so I was towering over them.

"Where." I grunted.

One of the spooks pointed in the direction that they were walking and took a step back so he was further away from me. The ONI spooks probably out-ranked me by quiet a lot. Luckily they weren't familiar to the Army Dress Uniform. I smiled and took a step back.

"Thank you." I finished and turned to walk away.

I made it to the elevator 2 minutes later after passing metal door after metal door. I pressed the button to call the elevator and stood there waiting for another minute. I took that time to examine the parts of my body that I could see or feel. My hair was way beyond regulation length but I liked it this way and I would try and keep it for as long as possible. The rest of my body was the same as it had been when I left Reach, whenever that was. Hell I didn't even know what date it was. The elevator opened and two Naval officers walked out. One was about a 4 but the other was around a 7. As they walked out I did the half grin smile thing that girls liked. I heard her whisper to her friend as soon as my back was facing her and I was in the elevator. I smiled to my self before pressing the G button. The doors closed and the elevator jolted as we headed down the massive building, which was HIGHCOM. We were on floor 76 so I decided to lean against the elevator wall. There were two other men in the elevator both were private security. The one closest to me was unremarkable and looked like another bored guard. The elevator stopped on level 30 and both of the guards proceeded to leave, I noticed a massive red patch on the other guard's neck.

"Nice scar, my first art piece." I said as they left the elevator.

The doors began to close but were stopped by a hand. In came both guards again. They looked slightly pissed.

"I'm sorry? What did you say to me recruit?" Grunted the guard.

The doors closed as the other guard pressed the close button. They both closed in on me. It didn't work on intimidating me because of their size. They were both 3 inches shorter than me.

"That's Corporal to you civilian." I threatened.

Soldiers usually called private security forces civilians because they didn't register as anything else in the UNSC chain of command. They were outsiders. This also meant that anyone over the rank of PFC had authority over them if their acting CO or XO wasn't around. Which meant due to my recent promotion I was in charge of these assholes.

"Yep that's right. Corporal, which means I control you until a higher-ranking solider gets in this elevator or you two get off and use the stairs. The guard that I didn't zap pressed the open door button and we slowed to a stop and the doors opened for the 9th floor. The guard that I did zap however was still staring me down (well up in his case because I was a solid 3 inches taller). His buddy pulled on his arm and he broke away. The elevator doors closed once again and I started to head down again. The doors finally opened to the ground floor and I stepped out. It was extremely busy and I was not in the mood for looking around for my escort.

"For fuck sake." I muttered to myself.

I started to walk in between the crowd and reached the front doors of the building. The massive class doors opened as I neared. I exited the build and took my first breath of Earth air I was rather disappointed in it. The air was quiet, air like air. I checked my pockets and found my wallet and phone, both of which had been taken from me upon entering Basic Training. I walked to a hamburger shop across the wide Sydney Street. The hamburger joint had perfect placement, they made quick burgers that meant UNSC staff could come down and quickly get a bite to eat before getting back to work. It was a very smart move by the owner, as they must be pulling in a lot of revenue.

I grabbed a hamburger and put it on my UNSC card. They obviously stopped asking for names and ID numbers long before I came about. I took a bite of the hamburger and chewed on it for a bit. The taste was new to me; I had never had a proper hamburger before, dog/cat burgers on Levosia don't count.

I had taken a seat and had finished my burger long before a woman sat next to me. From what I could see from the corner of my eye was that she was young about 19 and very attractive. I didn't turn my head because for all I knew she could be a bloody Vice Admiral or something.

"Do you want to finish what we started?" she asked me.

I turned my head to look at whom this girl was. It was the nurse from Reach, I didn't know weather to smile or groan. The next thing I knew we were in my temporary accommodation 5 floors underneath HIGHCOM, and she was on top of me.

I woke up with fingernail marks across my chest and a very happy face. 6 months I told myself laughing in my head, 6 bloody months. The nurse was next to me hogging the entire sheet, but I could still get a pretty good view. I got out of bed and explored my little room. I had a double bed, a double locker, a couple of storage chests and a bathroom. I walked into the bathroom and took a piss. Just for the hell of it I took a shower as well. I finished and walked out of the shower with nothing on not even a towel. Outside were two ONI girls. They couldn't look me in the eye as I walked toward my locker that had a spare change of clothes in it.

I nodded at each of them as I left my room fully dressed. I found myself in a mess hall with around 100 men eating and messing around. I knew at first glance I was going to like this.

I sat and ate my meal without saying a word like a good boy and then headed down to where last nights entertainment was stationed. From what I could see each one of the ONI officers was in charge of the training and development of several men. Although most of these men were battle hardened ODST's and Rangers they still needed to keep in shape while not in combat.

My overseer was named Lissie, a name that I had previously forgotten to learn. 2 men in pure white BDU's came and took me away to where I would be trained.

"Nice to meet you to." I muttered as they each held one of my arms.

I was dragged into a room which completely bare, well apart from the tiles on the floor and a drain. I knew what was going to happen. The men stripped me down to my underwear and I was hosed down. I closed my eyes while it happened. The water felt weird as it ran off my skin, the hose stopped and I opened my eyes. They hadn't been hosing me down with water it was mud. The men now had armour in their hands as they closed in on me. The armour wasn't Army or Marine, I could see that much. One guard produced a shock baton from behind his back.

"Son of a bit…" I couldn't finish my words before I hit the floor.

My head hurt from hitting the tiled floor. The armour on me was hard and itchy, compliments of the mud. I couldn't see anything but I knew I was in a box of some sort. I moved my hands around to find an opening or anything that would help me for that matter. I felt a shudder and then I felt weightless. 0g training maybe, my thoughts were shattered as I my legs suddenly fell back onto the floor. The box started to heat up and it was shaking like crazy. Then the box slowed a bit before smashing into the ground.

"What the fuck is this?' I muttered to myself.

A door opened in front of me flooding the box or capsule as I saw now. I examined the capsule it looked slightly familiar like I had seen it in a video or something. Then it hit me, ODST. A rifle was snug in a compartment next to the opened door. I smiled to myself; this is going to be fun. I grabbed the rifle and took a step outside of the capsule. A felt a thud hit my chest followed by several other thuds hitting my torso area. I saw an ODST in full BDU slowly walk closer to me. It took a couple of seconds before my body gave in to the tranquilizer, which was incorporated into my training body armour. I felt myself drifting away.

I woke again in a dark capsule. This time I knew what was going to happen. The capsule landed and the door opened, I grabbed the rifle and sprinted outside of the capsule. My eyes adjusted to the light, I found myself on a hill well it felt like hill. I heard the sound of equipment hitting together. The fucking ODST who shot me last time, well that who I thought it was. I moved to behind my capsule.

"This time, your mine bitch." I muttered to myself.

I had been muttering to myself a lot recently. I had never done it before; maybe I needed to go see a shrink or something. The sound of equipment was closer now but slower.

"This is Kiligan. No sign of the rookie. He might have moved off the hill." Said the ODST.

"Roger, I can't wait to zap his ass." This statement was followed by a couple of chuckles on the radio. "Hey guys did you hear Lissie slept with that guy. Like I mean she always seems like a stuck up bitch."

"Very funny guys, now let's find this dickhe…" The ODST never got to finish his sentence.

I walked out of my cover and fired at the ODST. I didn't care where they landed as long as he went down I was happy. My first few shots zip past his torso followed by 4 shots to the chest and a shot to his abdomen. The ODST gasped in shock before hitting the ground. Dirt rose from the ground as the massive ODST struggled to get back up. I walked up to him and put my foot on his chest.

"No, my turn." I told the ODST.

I aimed my rifle at the ODST's helmet and pulled the trigger. The ODST's body went limp as the paint dripped from his visor. I immediately felt joy and happiness. I had beaten an ODST, a motherfucking ODST. I started running around.

"Matthew Drastly, wonder solider takes out a motherfucking ODST!" I mocked.

I jumped and thrust my fist into the air, before being smashed in the chest and pushed 5 metres backwards. I landed on my back gasping for air as the shot had pushed the air out of my lungs. Once again I felt myself drift away.

"For fuck sa…" I passed out.

This was the routine for the next month. That and physical training, which included weight lifting, running marathons and more intense combat training. At the end of the month (which I found out was September meaning it had been 3 months since I left Reach) I was allowed a week of rest, but I wasn't allowed to leave Sydney. I left the below ground training facility around 6 pm and found myself 4 hours later in a military pub. Inside were ODST's and Rangers laughing and drinking with each other. It was funny because on the field they were know to start fights with each other in camps and sometimes even during battles.

"So I had 2 banshees on my tail right." One of the ODST's was saying. "And I was driving as fast as I could. I though I was going to die right. So I slammed my foot on the brakes and watched the banshees fly over me. I got up onto the gun and started firing. The banshees turned around and started a run back at me. I was screaming and the lot." I zoned out after the ODST continued about a teddy bear involved and a tree that flew and hit a banshee.

Right now all I could care about was where my friends were, and if they were still alive. Basic Training was now 8 months so that the UNSC could put more men on the field. So that meant that his friends had been deployed for nearly over a month. One of the Rangers said something to me but I was too much in deep thought to notice.

"Solider! I'm talking to you!" He shouted in my ear.

I snapped out of my thought and turned to the Ranger who was standing next to my seat.

"Sorry Sir. I wasn't paying attention." I stated as I stood up and gave a weak salute.

"It's alright boy. Now I was just asking you if you had any stories of your own to share." He asked.

I shook my head and I felt a bit embarrassed when I knew that I had never seen an inch of real combat.

"No Sir. I haven't seen any combat apart from a small fight with ONI private security on Reach Sir." I replied.

The Ranger burst out laughing and so did the rest of the soldiers in the room. Even the bartender was laughing. He was probably a ex-solider from the Rain Forest Wars by the look of his scars which were riddled across his face.

"That little fight was you!" The Ranger shouted before bursting out laughing again.

The Ranger turned to the Bartender struggling to stay in control of his laughing.

"John! I'm buying this solider a drink!" He shouted.

The rest of the soldiers cheered at this. I was like a celebrity to them; for once I didn't feel like a pawn. ODST's and Ranger's alike gave me pats on the back before I received my beer.

"So, Corporal, what actually happened?" The ranger asked while the rest of the room settled down.

I told them about the ONI girl and then how they tried to kidnap me. They laughed at the bit about running across a snow-covered field barefoot and asked to see the burn scars on my back from getting zapped. The highlight of the story was zapping the guard though which got me pats on the back and a few more soldiers buying me rounds. The rest of the night consisted of hearing about war stories from ODST's and Ranger's, some of which were funny while other we stood silently and did a silent toast to the soldiers that we had lost. I left with the other soldiers around 2 am as we walked (well saying we walked was pushing it, we stumbled was more like it) back to HIGHCOM. A few soldiers couldn't hold their stomachs and threw up outside the HIGHCOM building. We stumbled in the front doors to find the lobby as equally busy as it was during the day. ONI and Naval Officers alike moved out of our way. Army and Marine Officers weren't so forgiving and we race for the stairs before we got caught. A few ODST's and Rangers were too drunk to make in time before being caught. I on the other hand with my tolerance made it just in time. I made it to my bed and passed out.

_Hey guys, don't worry if you think this is all going to be about what goes on at HIGHCOM and ONI behind the scenes stuff. There is tons of action in the chapters ahead._

_SpartanHoplite_


	3. New Home

The pelican took off from the roof of HIGHCOM. Everyone on board was quiet. It was the end of their leave and it was the start of my war. My training had finished a week ago; it was the end of 6 months of training. The Rangers and ODSTs who were on the Pelican with me were not those who I had befriended 5 months ago. I had kept in contact with some of them, yet eventually they stopped replying. At first I thought that they were in the thick of combat but then I received a message.

"_Too whom this may concern. The following soldiers: Lance Corporal Jones, Lance Corporal Hunt, Sergeant Amêratovic, Staff Sergeant Pots. Have died in combat, Staff Sergeant Pots and Lance Corporal Hunt will receive medal ceremonies for their heroic actions in the field."_

That was a month ago now. I had attended the medal ceremonies and for Lance Corporal Hunt who was the Ranger who I had befriended in the pub I had to write a speech. I found out that Hunt whose first name was Link, didn't have much of a close family. At his medal ceremony for a Bronze Star only his Father and Sister were present. Along with a dozen of his fellow Rangers and a few ODSTs. I was the only non Special Forces solider there. I felt awkward when I said my speech before saluting and stepping down. At that moment I was thinking. Would my parents even bother to leave Levosia to come to my funeral, would my brothers. I knew my brothers would most probably not because they joined the Insurrectionists when I was 10. Had they only known the alien threat at the time they might of joined the UNSC.

It was the first time I had known a solider that had lost his life in the war. I probably knew a few others such as my fellow recruits back on Reach but I didn't know for sure that they were dead. I didn't cry at this, I didn't really feel much emotion. I only knew Link for 2 months before he was deployed.

Now I myself was being deployed. I still hadn't been chosen by the ODSTs or Rangers like the Major had said. Now that I think about it he said that I was related to someone important. Who would that be? I knew from his questions it couldn't have been a high ranking General or what not. It was someone more solider like. My train of thought was cut off by the hissing sound of the pelican becoming pressurized. Soon I felt my body lift as we entered zero gravity. The Pelican had no windows so I had no idea what ship I was going to be stationed on. For the next couple of minutes I held myself down to my seat. The Pelican leveled out before landing inside my new home. Gravity returned to normal and the bay door at the back of the Pelican opened.

The Hanger bay was bustling with activity. Marines and Army alike were moving around. The name of the ship was on one of the Hangar wall, UNSC _Musashi_.

I was on a goddamn carrier. A small bit of adrenaline rushed through my veins as I looked around the Hanger. It was huge, with multiple pelicans on the floor as well as hanging from transportation claws above our heads. Massive amount of weaponry was being pushed around and delivered to different pelicans and hornets.

"_Ranger and ODST arrivals. Please make you way to Hanger Bay 6." _Announced the speaker.

I followed the Rangers and ODSTs to Hanger Bay 6 that just happened to be halfway up the ship. The UNSC _Musashi _was 3 kilometers long meaning we had to walk 1.5 kilometers to reach it. The ODSTs and Rangers had their armour and BDUs on as they walked down the corridors. Army, Marines and Naval personal alike moved aside into other corridors to let the ODSTs and Rangers through. I felt small as I walked with them.

We finally got to Hangar Bay 6. I was expecting ODSTs and Rangers to be walking around and there to be pelican after pelican with hotshot pilots. In front of me was a poor excuse for a hangar. Sitting there waiting for us were 2 pelicans which looked worse for wear and so did the pilots. We walked down some stairs leading to the level where the pelicans were parked. The pilots looked at us and shrugged, they stood up and put out their cigarettes before walking to the cockpits of their respective pelican.

I was completely underwhelmed at what was provided for the ODSTs and Rangers. The two groups of Special Forces didn't seem to care as they split up ad walked into their pelicans. I stopped and stood there not knowing which group I was with.

"Hey kid! Your with from here on out!" Yelled one of the ODST's over the sound of the pelican's engines warming up.

I nodded and jogged to the pelican that the ODST's were on. I took my seat as the bay door closed and the compartment pressurized. I was disappointed about not being able to become a Ranger. Ever since Link's funeral I wanted to become one. I wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a hero to a kid like he had become a hero to me. Right now I had a picture of him and myself after a night at the pub, now that I was going to become an ODST I swore to myself that I would never lose that picture.

We landed now on a different ship. I hoped to myself it was a large significant ship like a carrier or cruiser. The bay doors opened and I proceeded to leave.

I got out of the pelican and looked around to find the name of the ship. The paint on the wall of the hangar had nearly worn off completely. There were scorch marks where the 'UNSC' part of the name should have been. The hangar was full of scorch marks as well as dents in the metal where needler rounds had hit.

"Corporal Drastly!" A voice shouted.

"That would be me!" I shouted back in no general direction holding up my hand.

"Over here Corporal." The voice was now closer.

I turned around and all I could see was engineers and pilots walking around.

"I'm right here Corporal." The voice was now right behind me.

I turned to face a Lieutenant and nearly stumbled backwards at the sight of how close he was.

"Let's take a walk Corporal." Said the Lieutenant.

He started to walk towards the hangar stairs and away from all the hangar activity.

"My name is Lieutenant Obergon. I am in charge of you and the other 11 ODSTs on this ship. That means you are my bitch, and my bitches are loyal. You understanding me bitch?" The Lieutenant stated.

"Yes Sir." I replied.

"Ok then bitch. You are the least experienced of my bitches that means that you will report to the firing range and the gym 5 times a day each. Is that alright with you bitch?"

"Yes Sir."

At this point the Lieutenant and I had climbed the stairs and had reached an elevator. The Lieutenant stepped inside the elevator and turned to face me. His face was worried.

"Corporal, please try not to die." He said before the doors closed.

I nodded at the now closed doors. I heard laughter coming from the corridor that I had just walked down. I turned around and saw the 5 other ODSTs that I had come with.

"Oi Drastly! This way to the room!" Shouted one of them.

The ODSTs had seemed to brighten up ever since we left Sydney. I moved down the hallway to find my fellow ODSTs entering a room. The room itself was larger than other living quarters on the ship due to it housing 6 massive ODST well 5 and then there's me. It had 6 beds (no bunks because of the weight of an average ODST), 6 lockers and 1 bathroom.

"Rookie has door bed!" Shouted one of the ODSTs.

I looked to where the ODST had pointed and I my eyes met with a bed which was right next to the door. Each time the door opened it banged against the bed stand. My locker was also on the opposite side from my bed meaning if the door was opened I had no privacy while getting dressed. The ODSTs started to unpack their personal gear, which included armour and weapons. I on the other hand who had never owned a piece of armour or weapon (knifes on Levosia don't count) found myself with nothing to do. All I owned right now was the clothes that I was wearing.

"Fuck this." I muttered as I left the room.

I decided to start my training that Lieutenant Obergon ordered me to do. I took a stroll down the corridors of the ship as I slowly made my way to the firing range. The firing range was on the lowest deck and had the most scorch and needler marks of all the decks. The lower parts of the walls had a thin poster board covering of which were riddled with bullet holes.

"Corporal Drastly?" Someone called.

"Aye." I replied turning around.

A short but bulky man stood in front of me. His hair was a very thin buzz cut. He was practically bald. His eyes were a dark green which were made darker by his sunken in eye sockets. He bore an ODST tattoo on his forearm.

"I was told to teach you how an ODST uses his gun. Follow me." He said.

I read his nametag before his turned and walked towards the weapon locker. Prøg. He had no rank markings next to his name or on his uniform.

"My name is Prøg, that's it. No rank, but I am and always will be your superior on this ship. I am the weapons master, its not a rank but a position." He stopped and turned around. He looked me up and down. "You look Army. How did you become a ODST without combat experience?" He questioned.

"HIGHCOM." I bluntly answered.

"Ah." Prøg answers before entering the weapons locker.

I waited outside awkwardly spinning on my heel for a minute. Prøg came out again with a duffle back full of weapons, then returned back inside and came out with a larger bag full of ammunition. He pulled out a holopad and tick something giving it a approving nod.

"Now Corporal, I want you to use 2 mags of ammo on each of these guns while I observe." Prøg said gesturing to the firing range.

So I dragged the weapons and ammo to the range. I set up the guns in a line and started firing.

"Stop!" Prøg yelled in my ear.

I took my finger off the trigger of a BR55 on full auto. My ears rang loudly for several seconds before calming down, although I could still hear it in the background.

"Ok then. Lets see here" Prøg muttered. "You're regular with nearly every weapon. You have high accuracy with the BR55 but in short you still suck." He said.

Prøg proceeded to head back to the weapons locker and returned with a massive SRS. The Sniper Rifle looked heavy even for him as he carried it to me. He dropped it with a 'clang' as it hit the floor.

"Now try this."

I picked up the SRS, which was lighter than I expected. I placed it on the firing range table. I inserted a clip of ammo and pulled back the pin, placing a round in the chamber. Prøg pressed a button on the command panel moving a target down the range. It was about 100 m away, it was closer than usual but the ship wasn't long enough. Well I still didn't know what type of ship I was on but I assumed it was frigate of some sorts. I looked through the scope.

"Fire when ready." Prøg said.

"Aye. Will you shut up and let me focus now." I muttered.

Prøg took a step back. I had no idea what I was doing yet my body moved with the rifle. I pulled the trigger, my whole body rocked as the gun recoiled into my shoulder. My arm shot out and quickly pulled back the bolt. I pulled the trigger again.

"Alright that's fine" Prøg said.

I lifted up as my target came closer for examination. I saw 1 bullet hole through the head of the target.

"Fuck, I missed." I said.

"No you didn't" Prøg corrected. "You fired straight through the same hole."

I didn't believe it at first but Prøg had recorded it in slow motion. I saw the bullet pass through the hole not even touching the paper target.

"You know I didn't believe that you were related to her at first, but now after that I think you are." Prøg smiled.

"Who is this person that I am supposed to be related to?" I asked.

"Never mind. I shouldn't have mentioned it."

"Ah, HIGHCOM secret?"

"ONI."

I nodded removing the magazine from the SRS. I noticed the model etched on the side: _'SRS-98 Anti-Material Sniper Rifle'. _It was etching from a knife, a personal touch of sorts.

"Whose rifle was this?" I asked.

"Hers. Now it's yours. The gun runs with the blood."

I nodded and picked up the SRS and a box full of its 14.5 x 144mm APFSDS (Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot) rounds. Prøg was smiling to himself as I left.

I returned to my room that was a complete mess with clothes and armour spread out along the floor. I ignored the stench and placed my new rifle and rounds in my locker.

I stretched out on my bed enjoying the peace and quiet of the empty room. I was dozing off when I heard moaning coming from the bathroom. I got up and walked towards the bathroom door. The moaning got louder. I pulled the bathroom door out revealing Arthur one of my new ODST brothers with a Naval Officer. I didn't close the door as I had reached into my pocket for my phone. I took a few snaps of the dumbstruck couple that were in the shower before slamming the door closed. I burst out laughing and collapsed to the floor. The bathroom door opened again and out came a very angry Arthur. He picked me up and pushed me against the wall.

"Goddamn Matt, I wasn't finished and now she doesn't want to continue."

"Arthur, I am truly sorry but…" I burst out laughing again.

Arthur smashed me in the face, which hurt less than it looked. He turned away and returned to the bathroom where I heard him and Naval Officer arguing. Blood ran from my nose as I stood up. I wiped it away before entering the bathroom again.

"Sorry, I'll leave you two. Just need to grab a tissue for my nose." I said before quickly getting another glance of the Naval Officer.

I left my room with a tissue in my nose and dry blood on my lip. I couldn't wash it off for obvious reasons. I sat in one of the empty corridors and waited for something to happen. I had started to snooze off before I felt the ship jolt and shudder before maintaining an ever-present shaking feeling. I had the sudden need to know what type of ship I was on. I stood up and walked around trying to find a mechanic or solider. I heard a few mechanics talking while they were fixing some part of the ship; I tried not to bother them.

"Hey, come on lets finish this repair and get to the gym. That new ODST Tyler is fighting XO." I overheard.

The two mechanics continued to talk while I made my way to the gym. I could hear cheering as I drew closer to it. I walked through the open doors to find most of the crew and a lot of soldiers crowding around the boxing ring. Of course the whole crew and marine detachment couldn't fit in the gym so others were lining the hallways with holopads in their hands watching the fight.

"Alright are all bets in!" Shouted a voice.

I shoved my way in. I may not have the body of an ODST yet but being one commanded a certain amount of respect. Younger marines moved out of the way when I passed while the older and more experienced marines grunted and moved ever so slightly making sure to bump shoulders as I passed. I made it to the ring to see the Captain standing on a ladder collecting bets from the men. The bets came in form of pieces of paper with the name of the solider and the amount he was betting. The Captain then put them into a box, which the ship's AI were standing next to.

"Quiet down!" Boomed the Captain.

The chatting went quiet but didn't stop; this was the big match before cryo. The AI was wearing a uniform that resembled a horseracing bookie. In one of the corners was my new team leader, Ferdinand. He was from Earth, Germany. He had that look of a perfect German, or as the 20th Century German dictator Adolf Hitler had called them, Arians.

The other side was occupied by the XO of the naval engineers that were stationed on the ship. He was an imposing 6ft 7 and had the body of a bodybuilder from all the years of working on the ships. His black hair was dripping with sweat and onto the floor of the boxing ring.

"Attention! Here is the fight we have been waiting for. In the first corner, we have the ship's fighting champion, Petty Officer Mary!" Boomed the Captain again.

The crowd on the side of the Petty Officer roared. They were mostly naval engineers there were also a few Marine Officers who had bet on him.

"In the second corner we have Petty Officer Mary's new challenger! We have Staff Sergeant Mans!"

This time, the ODSTs and most of the Marine contingent that was in the room roared in support, even outside the marines that were watching the match on their holopads roared.

"Let the match begin!"

The Captain moved up another step on the ladder and slammed a 50mm round into the roof creating a dull thump of metal on metal. This signaled the match to start.

"Come on Mary!"

The screen in the gym which as mainly use for posting news while men worked out had been taken over by the AI, now it showed the bets placed on the two men and how much people would win for their bets. Despite the roar of support from the Marines not many of them had bet on Ferdinand.

The crowd cheered as punches were thrown and dodged. This was bare hand and foot fighting. No rules except crotch and eye shots. Mary threw a wild punch that Ferdinand quickly ducked under before landing two punches in Mary's stomach. The massive man was forced back before regaining his balance. Mary was now pissed and came charging at Ferdinand. Side stepping Arthur threw a punch, which connected to Mary's jaw. The beast fell down and hit the floor hard.

The marines cheered and laughed at the now downed Mary. The naval engineers stood there shocked and some even started to leave. There were pushes and shoves as they left.

Ferdinand had returned to the side of the ring and was talking to a couple marine girls. Ferdinand slicked back his sweaty hair acting attractive; this distracted him from the fact that Mary was slowly crawling towards his feet. The girls giggled as Ferdinand made a joke before being pulled down by Mary. Ferdinand kicked back at Mary who was still on the floor. Feeling cocky and wanting to impress the marine girls Ferdinand decided to use strength against Mary.

"Come on Ferdie! Finish him!" Shouted one of the girls.

Ferdinand broke free of the hold on his foot to the delight of the crowd and sat on Mary's chest pinning his arms down with his knees. Ferdinand started to throw punches at Mary's face. The crowd cheered after every punch. Somehow using sweat and strength Mary got one of his arms free. Mary connected his massive fist with Ferdinand's face sending him to the floor. Mary stood up and only got a cheer from the remaining naval engineers. The marine officers had long since joined the cheer for Ferdinand. Ferdinand lay on the floor with his nose pouring blood. Managing to stand up, the obviously concuss Ferdinand stumbled a bit before raising his hands again. Mary turned and struck down Ferdinand again. The cheers of the engineers got louder. Ferdinand managed to stand again using the rope for support. He now had a split lip and a broken nose.

"Come on you piece of shit." Ferdinand said.

Mary threw another punch, which was surprisingly dodged by Ferdinand. Ferdinand then lost his advantage after losing his balance and stumbling backwards. Mary angered by the dodge came up and smashed Ferdinand in the face again. He fell to the floor unconscious.

I moved through the crowd to reach the other ODSTs who were picking up Ferdinand's limp body.

"Dirty fight!" Shouted a Marine.

An engineer punched the same marine. As I left the whole gym was fighting. Well the Captain sat on the top of the ladder and counted the money he had made.

"What the fuck type of ship is this." I asked one of other ODSTs. His name I had forgotten the minute he had told me.

"This is the UNSC _Hummingbird_. There is nothing different about this ship, we don't get special clearance for anything and we aren't well known throughout the fleet. We would be a normal ship if it wasn't for Captain Howard."

"How so?"

"Captain Howard is a brilliant strategist and Captain. He knows how to make troops on the ground the most effective. He tells no one his secret but this is it. Fighting, drinking, sex. Everything a man and woman, in this case, would want."

"Haven't command seen what happens on this ship?"

"Yep plenty of times. They removed him from command twice, when that happened the ship came to a standstill. The crew refused to work, the marines refused to fight. Even the AI blocked out every command, they tried replacing the AI but he fought back."

"He?"

"Yes, the AI, Upsir, chose his name after it sounded royal. You will end up loving him."

I nodded as we reached the room. We dumped Ferdinand on his bed before laughing about the fight. I checked the bathroom again to make sure that Arthur wasn't fucking his naval chick again. I laughed to myself at the memory of walking in on them. Ben the ODST who had told me about the ship went to steal a carton of beer from the kitchen while we sat and rested.

"So Drastly, how did you end up an ODST? We all know you started Army and they rarely let Army types into the ODST course." Asked Vladimir.

Vladimir got a lot of shit for his name. He was Russian through and through, he spoke like a Russian, he shit talked like a Russian, he managed to walk like a Russian, but best of all he drank vodka like a Russian. He didn't talk about his past much. His parents moved to Harvest just before he was born. His father was abusive to him and only him. He was never let out of the house until he tried to run away when he was 15. He said that when he turned 18 he fought and beat his father before leaving. That's all that he would tell us, but we knew that there was more to the story.

"ONI and HIGHCOM say I am related to someone very important, so important that the person effects the war effort. I don't really care, all I know is that that person is a amazing marksmen." I replied

I stood from my bed to get my rifle from my locker. I pulled it out and showed Vladimir. He himself was the main marksman of the squad. Vladimir's eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped slightly.

"Is that a SRS 98?" He asked.

I nodded and showed him the carving. He took the gun and examined it. He pulled back the bolt and let it go. He looked like he was in heaven.

"This gun is rare. The military wanted a sniper rifle that could penetrate a scorpion, as the threat of the insurgency grew they were suspicious of scorpions being captured. The SRS 97 was introduced and that failed a shitload. Then the 98 came out, this baby. Bolt action, bipod, 20x scope, and so much customization. Only 200,000 were produced, they were deemed to be to powerful. The 99 is a remodel made semi-automatic per the military's request." Vladimir said

"Wow. You learn something new everyday."

"What rounds are you using for this baby?" He asked.

I stood up and walked back to my locker. I grabbed a magazine of my 14.5 x 114mm ammo and pried a bullet out of it. I walked back and handed it to Vladimir.

"14.5 x 114mm. That's what I was given for it." I said.

"No no, you are going to need larger rounds than that. Otherwise your aim is going to be off. You need 16.5 x 124mm rounds."

"How the hell will I find them? I know that they aren't standard issue."

"Prøg can make you some, or he can teach you how to make them. It's not hard; this ship has a tiny bullet forge. We can melt down some casings and make larger 16.5's."

I nodded and took my gun back. Vladimir put on a face of a small child having his favorite toy taken away. I laughed. I knew at this time Vladimir was going to be the ODST I was closest to.

_You guys ready for some action because it's coming soon!_

_SpartanHoplite_


	4. Old Roots

The ship's alarm wailed as we dropped out of slipstream and into the orbit of Harvest. The campaign had been going on for 4 years now and with nearly of half of the planet glassed we had nearly pushed them back.

The massive agricultural world had large open fields and too many lakes to count. I could see the detonation points where nukes had been fired and in the distance the part of the planet that had been glassed.

"All pilots to hangar bays, Marines prepare for drop. ODST's you have 10 minutes before we reach drop area. Prepare, good luck men, I want a low casualty percentage for our first campaign." Said the Captain over the speaker system.

I rushed to my room where Arthur was saying goodbye to his new naval girlfriend, before she rushed of to wherever her station was. Arthur nodded to me as he jogged past me toward our pods. I burst inside my room; the door rebounded of my bed and hit me in the shoulder. I shrugged it off as I opened my locker. I already had my armour on, as I knew that I would need it wherever we were going. I grabbed my SRS 98; I had put on a strap on it so I could sling it over my back while traveling. I had 2 chest pouches and 4 waist pouches that were larger enough to hold my new 16.5 x 124mm magazines. I slotted one magazine into the gun and pulled back the bolt putting a round in the chamber. I grabbed my second hand M60 pistol and placed it in its holster.

"Drastly! Hurry up!" Ferdinand yelled as he left the room with full equipment.

As he left that made me the only person in the room putting me under a bit more pressure. I quickly grabbed 2 frags from my limited pile and 1 stun grenade. My pile of weapons was looking small compared to the rest of my team, but they would grow. I snatched at my M60 mags picking up 6 but dropping one on my way out of the door. I ran down the corridor as fast as I could. I came to a T-intersection in the corridors; I ran down and smashed into another person going the other way.

"For fuck sake! Watch where you are going Marine!" I yelled as I stood up.

On the floor was a marine girl. I could care less until she stood up revealing her Lieutenant patch on her chest (Her chest was pretty large). She looked at me with dagger eyes. I noticed her crystal green eyes that were partly covered by her blonde hair. She looked 22 and she was a solid 9.

"Hey you know, if we make it through this, I would like to buy you a drink when we get back Lieutenant." I said to her in an attempt for her to have sex with me.

The lieutenant smashed me in the face busting my nose. I moaned as I cradled my broken nose.

"I'll take that as a yes! I'll see you when we get back ma'am!" I said before picking up my helmet and running off.

I put on my helmet as soon as I entered the SOEIV drop room.

"Goddamn Drastly, hurry the fuck up and get in your pod!" Screamed Ferdinand through the coms.

"Hey Drastly. Where did you get he broken nose mate." Asked Ben in his English accent.

I decided after Ferd's screaming to turn down my com volume in my helmet. I stepped into my pod, as the door closed the standard light turned off and was replaced by a red light over my head.

"Dropping in 5…4…3…2…1, drop."

My pod released from the ship and I started freefalling towards the planet. I felt weightless but I held my legs to the floor so my shins didn't break when we entered gravity. I felt gravity return to normal, and my pod started to shake and heat up. My helmet com system entered range of the marines and soldiers on the planet.

"Ferdinand pick a location quick, you got 5 seconds before we can't adjust the pods." Reminded Arthur.

"Ok! Patch your coms to channel 34. We got a marine detachment about to get stomped on! They don't know we are coming so lets give a good surprise!" Cheered Ferdinand.

"Aim for the Covvies!" I yelled over the radio.

I yelled it because it sounded like something to say, but it sounded quite stupid. We cleared the atmosphere and our small chutes shot up. 20 seconds later the chutes detached and we dropped further. I passed cloud level and I could see the ground approaching swiftly.

"This is Lieutenant Johns! We have lost our defensive position send no help. We are lost. We will retreat and mark position as lost!" Yelled a voice over the coms, I could hear gunshots and plasma rounds firing.

"If anyone is hearing this. Tell my kids I love them, send my body if you can get it." The same voice said no sounding depressed.

I felt as the braking rockets fired slowing my landing ever so slightly.

"Lieutenant Johns?" Now Ferdinand was on the coms channel.

"You can tell your family yourself."

I felt my pod slam into the ground. I pushed one of the buttons in my pod sending the door flying. I grabbed my rifle that was sitting nice and snug in its compartment. I took a step out of my pod and aimed down the road. I knew I probably wouldn't find a target but it looked professional and badass for ODSTs. I felt heat on my shoulder, turning to see what had happened I saw a scorch mark and then part of pod had a dent burnt into it.

"Drastly don't dwell on that shit! So fucking fire!" Screamed Vladimir.

Vlad was using a MA5 assault rifle for his CQB weapon. I realized I had nothing but my rifle and M6C pistol. Bullets were flying over my head as the other ODSTs fell back towards the make shift defensive positions of the Marines. A felt a bullet strike my shoulder pad, I realized I would be a friendly fire statistic soon if I didn't move.

"Drastly! Get the fuck down or move to our fucking position!" Yelled Arthur as he fired another burst.

I fell to the floor avoiding getting hit by plasma and bullets. I panicked, what was I doing here! Why did I join the military! I wanted to become a hero, killed Covenant and saving lives. But here I was on the floor panicking.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck! Get me out of here!" I screamed.

I heard the movement of rubble. Thank god they came for me. I looked towards the positions and all the ODSTs and Marines were still in cover. I knew that a Covenant was behind me. I started to weep I was going to die and have the memory of a coward. Also I hadn't had sex in nearly 8 months I didn't want to die without having sex one last time. I turned to see my death bringer, there stood an elite. The elite was a minor by the blue armour it was wearing and an energy sword was glowing in his hand. It stood on top of the pile of rubble that our pods had landed in.

"Fuck it!" I screamed.

I pulled out my pistol and stood up charging at the elite. The elite saw me coming and raised his energy sword. He swung down at me. I tried to spin around but the very front edge of my helmet got caught. I saw the energy sword miss my visor by millimeters blinding me for a few seconds before my visor adjusted to the brightness of the weapon. I managed to see it cut deep into my helmet's chin piece before I finished my spin. I now faced the side of the elite a perfect shot. I raised my pistol and fired. The round hit the shield and dissipated I fired twice more before the elite backhanded the pistol out of my hands.

"Drastly you stupid fucking idiot! Stop fighting a fucking elite and get to cover!" I heard on of my teammates call.

Now the adrenaline was pumping through my veins. I knew that if I tried to run I would die, and if I tried to fight I would die. I choose to fight and die. The elite brought his hand up to backhand me again. I ducked under this attack and rugby tackled his body. I brought the massive creature to the ground. The elite's shield wavered as I head-butted it in the face. I raised my fist and brought it down hard on the elite's head. I felt as several knuckles and 2 maybe 3 fingers broke inside my hand. I howled with pain and rolled off the elite clutching my hand.

"Tiny human, I respect your courage, but now you die, filth." The elite said to me as it stood up and turned on the energy sword once again. My team didn't seem to care for me as they seemed to aim everywhere but where the elite was standing. My pistol was within crawling distance but the elite was closing in on me.

"Hey Ferdie, tell any relatives that come to my funeral that I'm sorry." I said over the radio.

I rolled towards my M6C; grabbing it I rolled over so that I was facing the elite. I pulled the trigger until I heard the gun click. The elite staggered a bit before dropping to the floor. I dropped the gun to my side and let my head fall back. I breathed out with relief and chuckled a bit. My luck was over the top.

"Holy fucking shit!" I yelled.

Bullets and plasma were flying over my prone body but I couldn't help but laughing. I started to laugh hysterically until my stomach hurt. I calmed down slightly and chuckled a bit before my mind went back to reality. I was in the middle of a fucking firefight, literally. I felt another sudden rush of adrenalin pump through me. Fuck I must nearly be out of adrenalin by now I thought to myself.

"Ferdinand, I'm feeling heroic. Cover me." I said through the coms.

"Matt! I don't know how you are alive but get your ass back here!" Came the reply.

"That's a negative boss."

Picking up my M6C from my side I lifted myself up and half walked half crawled my way to behind a drop pod. I placed another clip in the gun and prepared to charge out. I walked out of cover and walked towards the covvie positions. I thought I was walking like they did in the movies, you know with the slow-mo scene with guns blazing. Except this wasn't slow-mo and it wasn't a movie. I felt heat all over as plasma round after plasma round passed my body; I started to move faster before tripping. Yes I know I tripped, an ODST tripping in combat pathetic. I placed out my hands to stop my fall, I landed and pain shot through my hand once again.

"Fucking fuck!"

I attempted to stand again, this time I felt something tare through my lower shoulder. It wasn't plasma that was a good sign, I think. I checked my shoulder to find a bullet wound.

"Friendly fire! Friendly fire!" I yelled.

There was no reply. Even though a few moments ago I felt like I was king and I could take on the whole covenant army alone. Now I felt alone, my 'allies' were firing in my direction obviously not caring if I die or not. I sat back down again. I felt sick; I quickly took off my helmet before throwing up everywhere.

"Fuck it. I'm done for good now."

I lay down on the torn up road and holstered my gun. I left my helmet off and closed my eyes. I felt the heat on my face as plasma nearly scorched it and I heard the zipping of bullets going over my body.

"Drastly! You still alive!" Yelled Arthur.

I put helmet back on so I could communicate.

"Just about, after hand to hand combat with a elite and getting shot by your own team you kinda wanna laydown." I replied.

"Fall back to our position, we'll provide cover fire."

"Promise not to shoot me?"

"Not the time Drastly!"

"Promise!"

"For fuck sake I promise not to shoot you, now get you ass back here!"

I stood and started to run back over the mound of rubble where the elite I fought was still lying dead. I was 10 metres from my team when I felt needler rounds hit me in the back. I screamed as I fell to the floor from the impact and felt pain as several had just pierced my armour digging into my skin. I rolled around on the ground breaking the needles. By the amount of cracks I heard there must have been 4 with 2 lodged into my back. The now broken shards lost their colour effectively disabling the explosion they caused. I felt my arms being lifted and I was dragged away. The shards were still lodged in my back as I began to slip in and out of consciousness. As I was dragged behind cover I heard shouting as a Hornet passed overhead and provided support. Then I gave up.

I woke to a bright light above my head. It was unnatural light so I knew I was indoors. I raised my head from its pillow and opened my eyes fully. I was in a field hospital. I lifted my body from the bed causing much pain to my lower back where the 2 needler rounds had pierced into my back. I felt a bandage that was wrapped under my shirt. My hand was also in a bandage from punching the elite.

"Corporal!" Someone yelled.

I turned to see Arthur and Ferdinand laughing. They were completely different from what they had been in the field.

"Hey guys. What happened after I was dragged away?" I asked them.

"Dragged away, no one dragged you away." Replied Arthur.

"You passed out after you killed the elite. Which is hilarious to watch. You were mumbling about getting shot in the shoulder when we picked you up." Finished Ferdinand.

I scratched my head. Then a looked to my shoulder, the shirt covered it but as I pulled it down I saw that there was no bullet hole. I did the same with the other shoulder with the same result. Everything after shooting the elite was made up. My brain had fucked me up.

"So was there a hornet for support, well that's what I remember?" I mentioned.

"Nope, we fought for about another 30 minutes after we landed before the covenant fell back. Actually it happened around 5 to 10 minutes after you killed that elite ultra. It was quite impressive after your 20 minutes of wailing."

"What? 20 minutes? It felt like 2 and then 2 minutes to kill the elite who I thought was a minor. Then after that I thought that the battle continued for 5 minutes." I said.

"Actually then, how did I get the needler round in my back." I added.

Arthur and Ferdinand looked at each other and shrugged.

"We don't know actually, but you had them half broken in your back when we picked you up."

I nodded and Arthur and Ferdinand turned to the exit. Arthur turned his head.

"Your armour is next to your bed if you hadn't realized already." He said to me.

I nodded once again. My brain could not take in the information it as given. For a whole 10 minutes my brain only came up with 5 minutes of memories. I dismissed these thoughts; I didn't care anymore now all I wanted to do was go get a drink.

"So I… Fired the th… thing and it hit… elite in the thing… and the elite… died." I slurred.

I on the boarder of the UNSC camp, some marines had set up a bar here using booze that they had found while patrolling a town. I was way passed drunk I was smashed. When I realized no one was listening to my story I stood up and prepared to leave. I swayed a bit at first but got my balance back. I started to walk back stumbling from time to time. I had my helmet with me. I don't remember why but I had my helmet with me even though I had no armour on. I stopped and sat down to rest even though I had barely walked 50 metres. I examined my helmet it looked badass. The cut from the energy sword had left a scar on my helmet. It had slightly scratched my visor but you couldn't see it while wearing it. I smiled; well it was a drunken smile, at my first war scar. I knew I had more scars on my back from the needles but this was more obvious and badass.

"Fuck I better get to sleep." I muttered.

I stood up again and fell back down from my drunkenness. I tried again with more success. I saw the groups of tents were up ahead.

I stumbled into a tent hoping it was empty. I was wrong. There on one of the beds was the Lieutenant that I bumped into on the _Hummingbird._ She was on her bed naked and watching some very inappropriate content on her holopad. Me being drunk saw this as very funny. I burst out laughing and lost my balance and went tumbling onto the floor. Then she let out a very quiet squeak. I was expecting a massive high-pitched scream but no.

"I'm sorry for intruding Lieutenant." I said struggling not to laugh.

I got up; even though I was drunk I knew I was fucked if I stayed any longer than I had to. I walked towards the tent entrance. I felt I hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see the Lieutenant still naked. Her body was in perfect shape and I could tell she did squats. She slapped me and then smashed me in the face in quick succession causing me to fall to the floor.

"Maybe if we both get back to the ship you can touch this." She teased.

The Lieutenant shoved me out of her tent. I still didn't even know her name. I didn't care now. I needed sleep.

I needed sleep. I had been in the field with Vladimir for 2 weeks straight. We had been dropped some food and water 3 days ago and we were being told that we would be in the field for another 2 weeks if everything goes to plan. We had taken out dozens upon dozens of covvie patrols and small raiding parties. I had begun the habit of marking my number kills on my helmet, it was cliché but it made me seem badass when we met with other UNSC troops. Vladimir laughs at me when I mark down the number of kills claiming its waste of time. I find it calming to see the number of strokes I have on my helmet.

Vladimir has been quiet ever since we arrived on Harvest. His parents used to live here and might of died here as well. He had the habit of shooting dead Covenant, which I laughed at as much as he laughed at me for my habit.

We were now watching a bridge on one of the large rivers. Intel from the Naval fleet up above showed massive movement in this area from Covenant ground forces. We were the closest asset at the time so we were here to keep watch while a more sizable UNSC force moved in from further away. We had been here for 4 days now. The hill that we were situated on was protected in the front by mines and the sides were mined as well. We were hidden behind tall grass if we were lying down that made our lives slightly easier. Vlad walked around from behind a bush where he had been for about 10 minutes.

"You break your wrist when you were back there or something?" I asked.

"Fuck off." Vlad muttered back.

I chuckled a bit. Vlad picked up his binoculars from the ground and searched the horizon.

"Anything?"

He shook his head and put the binoculars back down. He used his bag as a backrest as I was doing. He picked up the cards, which were sprawled out across the ground and started to shuffle them.

"Hey do you know that marine lieutenant? You know the 22 year old one I think and she is so fucking hot like nearly a 10?" I asked.

"You mean Lieutenant Hughes? The one that looks like she does squats everyday?" Vlad smiled.

I nodded and smiled back. We chuckled a bit at the thought.

"Well you know the day I woke in hospital. Well after I went drinking, I tried to get back to my tent but stumbled into hers and kinda interrupted her while she was." I made the gesture of what she was doing. (You can figure it out)

Vlad burst out laughing and rolled onto his side. I smiled at the memory of it and laughed too.

"Really?"

"Yep, she then came up to me slapped and smashed my face before saying that we could have sex if we both made it back to the ship alive."

"Well with a body like that you better hope she survives."

We both laughed a bit more before settling down.

"Cards?" Vlad asked.

"Sure. What we playing?"

"Just simple Go Fish."

I chuckled while Vlad dealt the cards. ODST's in full body armour playing a game of Go Fish. That would be a sight to see.

We sat for another 2 hours playing Go Fish and occasionally checked for the Covvies. We started to sing some songs that we remembered from our teen days. Vlad started to sing some Russian song while holding his hand to his heart.

"Lion Den. I repeat come in Lion Den." Said a static voice over the radio.

We had both chosen Lion Den as our call sign because it was one of those cliché sounding call signs.

"Da, this is Mother Russian Lion Den." Vlad replied.

"Cut the bullshit Lion Den. You have almost a full Covenant Battalion coming your way."

I jumped up from my resting place grabbing the binoculars and looked out past the river and bridge. I saw nothing, it might have been I joke but he seemed serious.

"Tell them I see nothing." I told Vlad.

"We see nothing with our binoculars."

"Well check again damn it. They are west of the bridge."

I moved my view more to the west and caught a purple glint of light from a ghost. The slowly the rest of the force was coming into view. My eyes opened wide and my mouth dropped as I saw a small battalion of 300 men and vehicles march towards the bridge.

"Gun! Now!" I shouted before dropping the binoculars.

I grabbed my SRS-98 Rifle and slid into a position in the long grass.

"Tell command to see fucking reinforcements now!" I screamed.

There was no need to scream, as there was no sound right now apart from the sound of the approaching Covenant onslaught but I felt it was needed in this situation.

I turned back to my rifle and looked through the scope. The electronic scope marked targets as I passed over their bodies. The first wave of the battalion was around 30 grunts, 20 jackals, 7 elite minors, 2 elite majors, but there was the prize an elite ultra.

"Vlad get down on your rifle we got an ultra." I told him.

Vlad dropped the radio and scrambled for his gun before crawling into the long grass next to me.

"Where?"

"Front of the first wave."

"Alright. I got that last ultra in the village now this one is yours." Vlad mumbled.

This meant that Vlad would shoot first to burst its shields before I took the take down shot.

I knew Vlad liked to take his time with the first shot of a battle. I lay there for a minute before I heard Vlad take a large breath and exhale. He pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the elite right it the head knocking it backwards and bursting its shields. I took the second shot and saw it pass straight through the squid-face's open mouth.

"Nice kill. Another one to add to helmet ey Drastly."

"You know it." I replied while giving my helmet a few taps.

We now started firing at will. Within 10 seconds we had eliminated every single one of the elites in the first wave. We switched targets to the jackals that were chaotically and franticly spinning around with their shield not knowing where we were firing. They fell one by one; the grunts now panicked and ran back to the second wave, an elite major shoot two grunt ultras for leading the wave into a retreat. The other grunts realized the consequences and fell back in line with the second wave. I waited a bit for the second wave to move up further to take clean shots.

"Ready for round two?" I mumbled.

"Da."

Vlad and I had made the habit of mumbling to each other while sniping even in extreme conditions where we are under heavy fire we still mumble to each other.

Both Vlad and I seemed to be in sync as we fired round after round. An elite was on zipping towards the bridge on a ghost trying to scout us. Vlad put a bullet into the elite's head and the ghost went out of control crashing into the river.

"Nice."

I started to pick off what seemed easiest with jackals and grunt majors being most of the targets. We must have picked off 100 grunts, jackals and elites by the time we lifted our head from out scopes. I cracked my knuckles and rolled onto my back to rest for a few seconds. I looked at the sky, the sun was going down and in about 3 hours it would be dark putting the covvies at a slight advantage due to the ability to try and cross the bridge with cloaks on. I was about to turn over when I saw a purple streak fly arch through the sky.

"Wraiths!" I yelled.

I quickly rolled back over and took a look through my scope to see 3 wraiths lined up. Vlad must have seen them to while he was resting because we both grabbed our guns and ran to grab our bags.

"Let's go! Don't forget the radio to contact command!" Vlad yelled as he grabbed his bag and took off sprinting.

I grabbed the radio and my back before sprinting off after him. For now the wraith's accuracy was terrible because they hadn't zoned in on us yet. I slowed down to a fast jog.

"There, that house will do." Vlad pointed out a house just a few hundred metres away.

We continued to jog towards the house and arrived there 2 minutes later. I sat down on the front porch and laughed. I had something with near death experiences that make me laugh, Vlad always comments about making sure I get therapy when we get back to the _Hummingbird_.

Vlad pulled his MA5 from the side of his bag. I stood up and drew out my M6C as we walked into the house. We walked into the kitchen, dust had gathered on nearly every surface. We checked under the sink because for some reason grunts like to sleep underneath them. We moved into the living room where there was even more dust on the furniture.

"Hey at least this T.V is working." As I nodded to the edge of the room where the T.V had a red light on.

Vlad nodded. He seemed tense as soon as we entered the kitchen and now even more tense when we entered the living room. He slowly took to the steps leading to the second floor. I stayed downstairs and kept watch until he returned. I took a seat on the couch before deciding to lie down. I accidently got mud onto the armrest, which was on my boot from running from the Wraith fire. Vlad to his time, I didn't mind I knew he wasn't dead because his pulse was still beating steadily which I could see on my HUD, although his heart was pumping a bit faster than usual.

"Oi, Vlad! You ok up there?" I shouted.

"Yea, I'm fine." He replied.

I knew something was wrong after that reply. He usually replied with 'Da' or 'Aye' with a Russian accent, but now his voice had lost all of it's accent and he replied in a normal manner.

I swung my feet of the couch and stood up. I still had my pistol in my hand and I readied it as I walked closer to the stairs. I reached the stairs when I felt something jab me in the neck, it wasn't like a needle jab but it was a solid object jab. I ducked as I swung around, I saw a body, and I didn't know if it was human or not I just tackled it. We hit the ground with a thud I got up first and aimed my pistol at the body. Another body came around the corner and screamed.

"Putin!"

In the door way from the kitchen to the living room was a woman who had her hand over her mouth. I now realized the body on the floor was human, it was an old man and next to him was an antique double-barreled shotgun from the 22nd century.

"Sorry Sir. Ma'am." I said as I holstered my M6C.

I held out my arm to help the man up but he batted it away and grabbed his shotgun and aimed it at my head. He had the look of hatred in his eyes. I raised my hands to show I meant no harm.

"Are you UNSC?" He grunted.

"Aye, I'm an ODST stationed on the UNSC _Hummingbird_."

"Does it look like a give two fucking shits where you are stationed boy."

He called me boy. I had been called boy all my life until I had been trained as an ODST and it had left emotional scars. As soon as I heard that name a flare sparked in my brain.

"Call me boy!" I shouted.

I grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and bent it up-wards with the help of my armour. I then pulled the man up using the shotgun. I grabbed him by the throat and held him in the air. With my free hand I took off my helmet.

"Do I look like a bloody boy to you?"

"I am fighting so you don't die so you and your wife don't die. Just a few hundred metres away is a bridge where the Covenant are crossing right now. If not for us they would have been all over you now, raping your wife."

The man spat in my face. I now increased my choke and slammed him against the wall.

"Stop it." The woman squealed.

I pulled out my pistol and aimed it at the man's head.

"This is how one of those elites killed a Marine I once knew. He placed the Marine's weapon to his chin and said in his alien tongue. 'Who's the little boy now bitch.'"

"No! Stop it!" The woman now sounded Russian.

"I will kill you in the next life." The man grunted I noticed his Russian accent as well.

"Drastly! Drop my fucking father now!" Vlad yelled from the top of the stairs aiming his rifle at me.

_Hey guys, I hoped you enjoyed the first action chapter and more are coming!_

_With this chapter done it would be great to grab some feedback from you guys. Something about my writing that you don't like? Tell me about it so I can change so it is enjoyable to everyone._

_Cheers_

_SpartanHoplite_


	5. Relations Help

I had found a packet of cigarettes on the balcony of Vlad's old house. I had given up ever since I had left Levosia but I felt I needed one right now. I took another long drag before exhaling out of my nose. I was enjoying the view, must have been I awkward sight a ODST in full battle armour leaning over a balcony looking out towards the horizon. I could see a orange hue on the horizon, the edge of the glassing. It had only been 2 weeks since the UNSC Navy knocked out a class CRS-Cruiser causing the glassing to stop.

I looked out towards the small hills we had just run from. The Covenant hadn't set off any mines or motion detectors meaning that they were still pitched on the other side of the bridge. I mean it kinda made sense when I think about it I had fired at least 100 rounds and my bag was getting quite empty of cartridges. I had found it was easier to fill the bottom of my hard-case bag just with bullets and then place extra cartridges on top, this made it easier for me to carry my bullets at a time but I had to manually place them in the cartridges. I had started off with about 20 cartridges at the start of this mission but now I was down to 7, I had left the others on the ground when I sprinted away from Wraith fire.

I detached my helmet from my waist clip and inspected it. I counted 129 kills, well those were elite kills I never counted jackals or grunts. Above those markings were 3 marks, elite ultra kills, and the first mark was from the elite that I fought with on my first drop, the second was from a night op, which Vlad and I ran a week ago, number three is my proudest kill. A day after the night op Vlad and I stumbled on an Army position that was situated in a village that was under attack from 2 whole battalions of Covenant, fuck I didn't know what was so important about the position but I never cared if I got to kill covvies. The soldiers were obviously losing when we arrived so Vlad and I jumped from village building to village building trying not to get caught. Then when we reached the end and prepared to leave we spotted an elite ultra. Vlad and I couldn't turn down the opportunity to kill an ultra. I climbed to a rooftop where the elite was walking past Army POW's. It drew its energy sword and prepared to cut the head off a solider. Vlad took a shot at the elite's head causing the shield to burst leaving it wide open to attack. I jumped down from the roof with my knife drawn placing it in-between the ultra's helmet and body armour. I laughed at the though of the firefight.

I grabbed my knife from its place above my ass and carved another line to mark the ultra I had killed not long ago. I then started to carve out 25 marks to represent the other elites that I had killed today. I smiled as my marks had nearly covered half of one side of my helmet. I was hoping by the end of my second campaign to have this side of my helmet full.

Vlad and his father had been inside the living room for half an hour now. I had been given the job of calming his mum who just happened to hate me for nearly killing her husband. She had stormed off into the bedroom before coming out and watching Vlad from the stairs. I had given up and come out here for a break.

I backed away from the edge and sat against the wall and took the radio from my chest. The plastic casing was charred black from plasma heat that it received 3 weeks ago; I still needed to change it. Now I think it had given up on me. All I heard over the channel to command was static must have broken something on the inside. I placed the radio down to my side and took another drag off the cigarette. I closed my eyes against better judgment to take a nap.

My eyes shot open and I drew my side arm when I was woken by the sound of a loud beeping sound. I was still on the balcony alone. I checked my breast pocket to find the motion sensors had gone off. I relaxed it was only the Covenant. I pushed my self up off the ground and picked up the radio placing it on my waist.

"Vlad!" I shouted stretching.

I walked off the balcony back into the second floor hallway. I passed what seemed to be Vlad's old room. I quickly turned my head it to find his favorite bear other something to make fun of him when we got back to killing covvies. There was nothing the room was bland, the walls looked like no-one had touched it since it was painted no sign that anyone had lived here apart from a few books and a toy which were placed neatly on the shelf. Had Vlad lived like this his whole childhood in a dark room with nothing inside of it.

"Drastly! What is it?" I heard Vlad call back.

I turned out of the room and back into the hallway. I walked down the stairs thumping with each step with my armour placing weight on the creaking steps. I passed Vlad's mother who gave me a vicious look. I entered the living room to find Vlad staring at his father who was doing the same. Things must have been worse between these two then I had been told. I would have thought that Vlad would have gone straight to beating his father but there was something deeper than that a hatred that had gone past anger.

"The Covvies are crossing the river." I said.

The two didn't move a muscle.

"That's fine though, just a couple thousand civilians on this side of the river but I'll you two a couple more minutes then." I added before turning into the kitchen getting out of the room as quickly as possible.

I walked towards one of the cupboards to just have a look. The kitchen also looked like it hadn't been used much a bit like the room up stairs. There were no items that you would normally find in a standard kitchen like a toaster and microwave. I opened the cupboard to find a very small saucepan. I walked over to the cutlery draw opening it I found only one set of cutlery. Either this family is big on sharing germs or something is very wrong here. I walked away from the kitchen heading back towards the living room to grab Vladimir out of his staring contest. I wanted to get out of this house.

I stepped on a tile that seemed to be hollow. I hadn't realized that the floor was tiled until now most likely because the tiles were about as wide as me. I stepped on the tile again producing that hollow sound. I stomped on it causing the tile to crack. Again I stomped now the tile broke apart and revealed a ladder leading underground. One thought came to my head Insurgents.

I moved quickly into the living room again with my sidearm drawn. Vlad now stood up realizing something was wrong so did his mother. I shoved the couch that Vlad's father was on, around to face me. I now once again pointed a gun at him.

"For fuck sake Matthew! Stop pointing guns at my father!" yelled Vladimir.

"This bastard is an Insurgent. He had that fucking tunnel in the kitchen."

Vlad stood there unnerved by this.

"That is where he kept me Matt. That is where I grew up for 15 years before trying to break out. The neighbors noticed me so I now had to stay in a room." Vlad told me.

"Then how do you explain this?" I dropped a grenade on the floor.

Vlad's mother screamed and ducked behind a chair. Vlad dove for it believing it was live. He stood up holding it in his hand the pin still on.

"There are 20 more down stairs with lots of small arms. Hell there is even a warthog down there."

Vlad punched me in the back. I now turned pointing the gun at him.

"What the fuck!"

"Even if that is true… He still… never mind. Let's go there are civilians that need saving. "

I unwillingly lowered my gun. I turned and spat at the man's feet before barging out towards the kitchen where the door out was. This was fucking shit. If the Covenant weren't around I would have placed a whole clip in that bastard's face. I kicked at the ground I have other things to worry about. Vlad now came out of the house and bumped his shoulder into mine.

"Don't ever threaten my family ever again." He muttered.

"Excuse you? That "father" of yours kept you locked up in a cage and beat you." I replied.

"He still… Did stuff for me." Vlad turned away. "I'll tell you… at another time… when we have time to talk."

Vlad slung his rifle around his shoulder and walked back towards the bridge. I stood there baffled something had happened in that house, yet I didn't know if it was good or bad. Vlad seemed to hate his father for constant beatings and for closing him off from the world. Yet deep down he felt he owed his father something.

"Hurry up Drastly, we got people to save." Vlad said not turning to face me.

I grabbed my helmet from my waist and ran my hand over the side feeling the marks before putting it on. I heard the helmet click into place as it connected to my body armour. I started towards Vlad at a slow pace I wasn't in a hurry to die.

"This is going to be a long day." I said as I placed another round in the cartridge.

"You know it, you set those mines up on our flank?" Replied Vlad.

"Aye they're there and ready to blow."

I finished putting bullets into my cartridges and placed them all neatly in a row. We were inside a barn house watching over the crawling Covenant advance. We had taken 20 minutes to reach this barn and the Covenant had barely moved past the bridge. I looked down my scope towards the advancing Covenant they were about 2 kilometers out of range and it would be another hour at this pace.

"Do you know when Command said the re-forcements coming?" Vlad muttered shinning his gun.

I grabbed the radio from my pack and chucked it to him.

"Unless you can pull an electrical degree out of your pocket then we don't know shit. Fuck for all I know the _Hummingbird_ had fucked off to another system." I replied.

Vlad nodded picking up the radio and started inspecting it. Giving a loud grunt he chucked it at me.

"That's fucked."

I put it back in my bag and lent back against the wooden barn wall. This barn was more for show then it was for farming. It was one of those old-fashioned ones. The ground was littered with hay and straw that were most likely produced in factories instead of bringing the real stuff from Earth.

"So… You alright mate?" I awkwardly asked.

"Yea, I'm fine. Just weird to see my dad." Replied Vlad while taking apart his pistol.

I nodded and rested against the wall. I felt like another nap, something about me today was making me tired. I yawned to confirm that.

"You're on watch mate, I'm taking a nap."

Vladimir grunted with discontent but accepted it.

I was kicked awake. I opened my eyes and rubbed the sleep out of them. I blinked a few times so my eyes could adjust to the light. Vlad was standing in front of me.

"How long was I out?" I mumbled while stretching.

"An hour or so. Now get up covvies are getting close."

I nodded and stood up. The barn's large open second floor window made a perfect sniping position. The window went from the floor to just before the roof allowing us to lie down while sniping.

I picked up my rifle and looked down the scope. Now closer than before, I could make out the composition of the Covenant's first wave. This first wave was larger than most that I had come across around 200 grunts, 100 jackals, 50 elites but no ultras.

"Lets get ready." Vlad mumbled.

Vlad and I had made several runs to other houses deeper inside the village to set up fall back positions when the Covenant started to use Wraiths against us.

We waited lying still for 10 minutes. We watched Ghosts come in and out of the village trying to scout us out. The driver never left the Ghost though which saved us several times.

"10 seconds." Vlad mumbled.

I slowly counted down from 10 inside my head. Both Vlad and I looked towards each other when we reached zero and nodded. Turning back tour rifles we fired in sync. The front elites fell before we came under fire, this time they knew where we were firing. I felt my armour adjust the temperature as super heated plasma flew over my head.

"Last mag then we move." I mumbled.

We fired 5 more rounds each taking down 9 more elites before grabbing our guns and remaining gear before we jumped down to the ground floor of the barn and exiting out the back door. We heard the Covenant continue fire on our old location we used this to sprint to our next location.

"Don't fire, they'll try and enter the barn and take us out. We'll blow the explosives with them inside saving us rounds." Vlad mumbled.

I took this small amount of time to fill my empty magazines with bullets from my bag. I placed them in a row next to my gun once again getting ready for another round of firing.

"Get ready."

I picked up the remote detonator from the floor and watched the barn from our new location.

The new location was a burnt down 2 story house which had a massive hole in the wall which must have been made from an explosion of some sort. We were shooting from that hole before moving again to our last fallback.

I watched as a group of grunts and jackals entered the room followed by a pair of hunters. Once I was sure they were all within range of the explosives, I pressed the button on the detonator and saw the barn go up in flames.

"Now!" I shouted before jumping down to my gun.

Vlad followed suit and we both started firing while the covvies were distracted by the lightshow that we had created. I heard the screams of the hunters as they burnt, their armour saving them from the blast.

Vlad and I fired round after round missing a couple when the elites rolled away from the shots. The covvies now realized where we had moved to and were shouting at the grunts that were in a panic to return fire. We eliminated a few more elites before a group of elite majors shot some grunts snapping them back into fight mode. We took out some of those majors before the grunts started firing; their shots missed most of the time but when in large groups can spray a lot of ground.

"Fucking hell we didn't pick this position well." Vlad mumbled.

We had a house in front of use so the Covenant could actually sneak up on us when we were sniping.

I fired again; pulling back the bolt I saw the round slide out. It was satisfying to watch the smooth ejection of the bullet; it landed on the pile of bullets, which had piled up during the 5 minutes of me lying here.

Plasma flew past my armour leaving black scorch marks. I was surprised with my luck, as Vlad had been hit twice in his shoulder he had to remove his shoulder plate so the plasma didn't burn through.

I finished my last mag and looked up, more Covenant were coming around the corner and I didn't have time to refill my cartridges. I stood up and tapped Vladimir on the shoulder, who was one his last mag. He nodded without looking up from his scope and quickly finished his rounds off.

I grabbed my cartridges and rifle before jumping down though a hole that had been burnt through the floor in the fire. I landed and sprinted out the front door, I felt plasma scorch on past, as I made it to the other side of the concrete street I felt someone hot on my calf. I looked down to see plasma burning though the armour. I tripped and fell behind a house into cover. I didn't care for my rifle or cartridges as I attempted to rip off the armour plating.

I screamed as the plasma burnt into my leg. The armour had melted onto my under-skin and solidified. I bit my lip as I went deeper into my leg. I started to taste blood, my teeth had sunken into my bottom lip leaving deep cuts. I lay in cover for half a minute before Vlad came sprinting across the road dodging plasma and needler rounds, he dived at the last second to avoid a plasma grenade.

"Mate, get the fuck up!" He screamed as plasma rounds hit the corner of the wall.

I screamed at the pain that shot through my leg as I stood up. Vlad shot off to the last house. I started a limping run after him. I reached into my pocket and took out another detonator and pressed the button. I heard an explosion behind and me and felt a piece of wood strike me in the back knocking me off balance. I stood back up pain shooting though my leg and continued to the last house.

I smashed through the door and walked towards the stairs flinching with every step.

"Matt, get your ass up here now!" Vlad yelled.

Vlad had arrived 5 minutes earlier and was already firing at the Covenant. My rifle was slung around my back and had dent in the stock where the piece of wood had hit it.

I tried my best to hurry up the steps, which caused me to collapse in pain when I reached the top. I crawled the rest of the way to where Vlad was firing, which was a small hole that we had smashed through the side of the house. The hole was so small that we struggled to aim through it but it had to do.

I lay down next to Vladimir. I didn't have time to re-fill my cartridges so tipped my bag up letting the stray bullets to roll out. I placed down my rifle and spread out its bipod. I took one bullet and put in the chamber. I looked down my scope and breathed. I fired the recoil making my leg move a slight bit, which caused me to grunt in pain.

"Fuck." Swore Vlad under his breath.

I didn't take notice to it as I placed another round in the chamber and fired missing an elite's head by centimetres. I tried again getting a bit luckier this time hitting it in the shoulder knocking the elite to the ground where I then finished him off with a third shot. I realized that Vlad wasn't shooting. I looked up and saw him staring into space.

"Matthew, I'm out of rounds." He muttered.

I knew what this meant as he looked at my leg. He looked back at me with a very grim face. I nodded accepting my fate. He would never admit it, but I saw a tear in his eye.

"It's been a very short honour Matthew." He said.

Vladimir quickly stood up and grabbed his rifle before running back down the stairs and out the back door. I turned back to the small hole in the wall where the Covenant were re-organizing frenzied grunts and jackals.

"This is it then, isn't it, Matt" I told myself.

I aimed down my sights and wondered what my life would have been if I had never left Levosia. Would I still be a drug addict, would I be dead in a gang war? I brushed those thoughts aside I will now be dying a much better death. I had around 100 bullets in my bag and I planned to use them all.

I closed my eyes and breathed, plasma was burning through the wall above me. I heard the constant thud as neeedler rounds smacked into the wall.

I felt the pain from my leg drift away and all sound become mute. I subconsciously placed a round in the chamber. I opened my eyes and fired, I didn't feel myself move it just happened. My hand reached out for another round and within a second I fired again and again. I saw as elite bodies started to litter the once paved road. Pools of purple blood formed beneath them. Plasma still flew over my head as the wall that had once been had been melted through by plasma.

My shoulder stung, it was the first feeling I had had in 30 minutes. I saw a needler round sticking out of it. I cared none; I turned back to my scope and fired at the jackal that had been responsible, the bullet passed clean through its head.

I was in a mental state of calmness; my mind was acting by itself yet I knew somehow I had some control of my actions. I continued to fire, my arm snapping out after firing each shot to grab another bullet. I saw less blue and green plasma rounds fly over my head, it steadily decreased.

My body returned to my control as the last remaining grunt fell while running down the road. I smiled, whoever the person I was related to who gave me this ability, I thanked. I looked to find I had only a mere 4 bullets left. My smile diminished as I felt the pain from my calf and now my shoulder return. It took a few seconds to take in all the pain before I screamed.

I lifted my head off the floor. I had passed out from the extreme pain. My face had molded around my gun's stock while I was out. I lifted my body causing extreme pain to my shoulder making me collapse. I now lifted myself with my right arm only. Vlad was the one who had the med-kit so I didn't have any bio-foam to seal up my wounds. I stood up on my good leg putting my hard-case bag on and slinging my SRS-98 on my shoulder.

I hopped down the stairs using my arm for support. I walked for the front door, which was still open from when I had slammed through it. Portions of the downstairs wall had been burnt away from stray plasma rounds.

I was now outside. The air was cold night was approaching. The sun was setting in the east unlike Levosia and Earth where the sun set in the west. I struggled not to step on the bodies of the fallen Covenant. I saw an elite on the ground spread eagle with a bullet through its eye. I walked over to it as something had caught my eye. I knelt next to it flinching as I felt the pain in my leg. There was a small glowing object under its armour. I took it and examined it; it was a small circular disc that had the standard covvie purple hue to it. I noticed a small button on the side, pressing it a hologram popped up. In the picture were what seemed to be 2 small elite children running around. For the first time I saw an elite have a smile on its face.

"They aren't a lot different than us." I told myself.

I placed the holo device in my chest pocket and stood up. The sun had fallen behind a hill and a chill breeze went by. My leg was too weak to push myself up again which forced me to crawl into a small alleyway between 2 houses. I sat against a wall out of the wind. My armour had lost its temperature control as soon as the plasma cut through my body suit. I took off my rifle and held it close to my chest as I curled into a ball trying to keep warm. I didn't expect to get much sleep tonight.

_Hey guys, that was one of the first proper action chapters I have ever written!_

_Tell me what you guys think!_

_SpartanHoplite_


	6. Reunited

I sat on a pile of dead Covenant. I had piled them up in hours that I had been awake. I had searched the bodies of the elites to see if any of them had other personal devices. I had enough time to pile them up in relation to their race. The grunts I did first because they were tiny little shits, the jackals were a bit harder to move but the real struggle was the elites and along with my injuries. I had pried off my calf armour with my knife and wrapped it with a bandage that I had begun the habit of carrying around; I had been forced to leave the needle in my arm because I would die of blood loss if I took it out. I know it isn't very smart to pile up dead 8ft elites when you have a needle stuck in your arm and plasma burns on your leg. I don't know why I did it, I just thought after seeing that hologram I couldn't just leave them lying around so I plied them up.

It was around midday when the reinforcements arrived. I couldn't tell what time it was because a needle had gone through my helmet when I was sniping. I had counted the kills of the elites but there were no ultras, which was surprising as out of the 38 elites that I had killed there had been none, the standard ratio was 40 to 1.

My helmet now had 167 marks, I glad I started marking them small or I would have no room left on my helmet.

The first reinforcements that came were falcon scouts that flew over. I then heard the shouting of advancing Army units. They were rarely deployed these days unless they were permanently stationed on the planet before hand. Since Harvest had so far been a very long campaign the Army had enough time to deploy multiple battalions on the ground. I could tell they were Army because of their falcons; they were older models that made a lot more noise. As they flew over I struggled to lift myself from the pile of dead grunts. I felt the shudder of multiple scorpion tanks rolling down the road from. I turned my head to see soldiers fanning out, covering perimeters, and watching corners. They still thought I was dead huh. I turned my head back to facing the sky and waited.

"I found the ODST! I repeat the ODST is on top of the heap of dead grunts!" I heard a solider shout.

I touched my leg and attempted to drag me down thinking me to do be dead. He grabbed on to my bandaged calf, I screamed at the top of my lungs. The solider jolted back and fell on his ass.

"Touch my fucking leg again grunt and I will fucking shove on of those dead elites up your fucking ass!" I yelled pointing at the pile of dead elites.

The solider turned his head, gulped as he realized I had killed all 38 of those dead bodies. A few soldiers had stopped to see what was happening and now a small crowd was moving close to me.

"Sir, do you need help getting down from there?" A soldier asked.

"No. I'll fucking do it myself." I grunted.

I pushed myself up off the mound of dead bodies with my good arm and slid down. I landed grunting as pressure was placed on my calf.

"Someone get me a god damn medic."

I soldier nodded and ran off back towards the scorpion tanks. I took this time to examine the soldiers around me. I towered over them at 6ft 8, I had grown massively since the last time I measured myself. They all seemed clean and fresh, they were new arrivals. That bode badly meaning we were losing ships in space, which meant more had been sent in. They seemed scared and in awe to see a massive ODST who was just happening to be lying on top of large amounts of dead covvies.

"Sir!" I heard a shout from behind me.

Out from the cluster of buildings came a medic and 2 other soldiers. I nodded to the third soldier behind them who was the one I sent. The soldier grew a smile on his face. Did I really command that much respect? Was I really that much of a hero already? Vladimir must have been pulling some stories when he had arrived back. I smiled at that thought.

"Sir, can you confirm where you have been hit?" Asked the medic.

"Shoulder, needler. Calf, plasma."

The medic nodded knowing not to speak to me more than what was needed. These guys were nothing like the marines. The marines respected us but we had rivalry with them over who could do the job better and faster and they knew our limits, but the Army, no, the Army though of us as goddamn Spartans. The medic looked at my calf first taking off the bandage and filling the hole with bio-foam. He then moved to my shoulder, he looked at it and shook his head.

"You will lose too much blood if I take it out."

"Then bio-foam it." I grunted.

The medic gulped and nodded pulling out another can of bio-foam. He placed his hand on my shoulder and tried to get the needle free from my shoulder. He struggled for a minute before I pushed him back and ripped it out of my armour. The medic stood there in shock as blood started to dribble out of the hole in my shoulder plate.

"Well? Hurry up and put the bloody bio-foam in it." I told the medic arms out in a questioning position.

The medic hurried close to me and placed the nozzle of the bio-foam into the hole in my armour and pulled on the release. The cool foam solidified inside finally giving my arm relief.

"Now, when you return to camp sir, I advise that you ask for a replacement so that you have time to rest and heal your wounds." The medic told me.

I took a step closer to the medic and glared at him.

"What did you just say?"

The medic took a step back holding his arms up to defend his face.

"I'm a fucking ODST. Do you think there are ODST's sitting around in orbit having a couple of beers waiting to be called in as replacements?" I yelled. "No! All ODST's are deployed when they arrive in system you stupid fuck!"

The medic quivered and took another step back. I turned around and huffed. I heard the sound of the medic scurry away behind me. I unclipped my helmet from my waist and placed it on. The hole left by the needle round made me look even more badass than I did with the energy sword scar and kill tally.

I walked on towards the scorpion tanks to find this unit's CO. Soldiers made way for me and nodded as I passed. It was at this time that I was sure that this whole entire unit had never scene an inch of combat.

I reached the front scorpion that was stationary in the street, not the best idea but hell these guys aren't my men.

The gunner on the lead scorpion was having a smoke and relaxing when I came up to him.

"Soldier! Where's your CO?" I asked.

The soldier jolted losing his smoke and smacked something on his leg against the tank. The soldier tried not to show the pain as he talked to an ODST. He raised his arm and pointed down the convoy.

"2nd last tank Sir." He mumbled.

I didn't nod as I turned away. I think I was going to hate this CO if he hid his bitch ass at the end of the convoy, and to think that I might have to tag along with this unit.

I reached the 2nd last tank in the convoy in no time, as there were only 5 of them. On top of the tank sat a man that was wearing his dress uniform with all his awards (which he only had one). The award he had was a unit citation, which by the looks of it was a ship citation that meant he had don't practically nothing to get that award other than be on a bloody ship when it was fighting

My rank as Sergeant made him a higher-ranking soldier. Well I wouldn't go as far as to call him a soldier, as he had never known real combat. Yet I had to show some degree of respect before I went full mental on his ass.

"Sir." I looked up at the officer sitting on the gun.

"Ah. You must be the ODST that needed to be pulled out of shit." He replied hopping down off the gun and sliding down to ground level.

"All due respect, Sir. I was in no need of help as you can clearly see by the piles of dead covenant." I spat at him with venom.

The officer took this badly and glared at me like he had more experience with fighting and I should respect him as a hero.

The officer hopped off the gun and climbed down off the tank even making sure his pants didn't get any dust on them, hell he was even wearing army dress shoes. He walked up close to me, not close enough so that he had to look up to see my face, but close enough to seem like he was trying to intimidating

"Speak to me like that in front of my men again and I will have you cleaning latrines for the rest of the campaign. Soldier" He spat back.

Calling an ODST a soldier was an insult, as it referred them to the common Army G.I. I shoved him back against his tank; his dress uniform had crumpled a bit, which made him feel uncomfortable. He had anger but also fear in his eyes as an ODST came up to him with hate.

"Now you listen here Lieutenant Shitfuck." I jabbed the Lieutenant with my fist. "You and your men have never seen an inch of combat I know that by just looking at you." I jabbed the Lieutenant again forcing him against the scorpion tank. "You try and enforce orders on a combat veteran with a confirmed 167 elite kills with 4 ultras." I told him as I tapped the side of my helmet.

The lieutenant looked like he had shit himself. His face had lost colour and his face was showing wrinkles of concern.

"You did fucking nothing to deserve that." I ripped it off and threw it to the ground.

I walked away as the lieutenant the soldiers around him just stared at me as I walked away towards a warthog that was sitting in the convoy.

"Lance Corporal! You're taking me back to base." I told the driver of the warthog as I drew closer.

The LC had been napping and his helmet fell into the back of the truck when he woke. He looked at me and gave a sharp salute. I nodded back in reply as he reached over to grab his helmet.

"Sir, I have no orders from the lieutenant to move out of the convoy." The LC replied.

"Let me worry about that."

The LC nodded and pushed the ignition button. I prepared to sit in the front seat but decided against it, for all I knew there could be a whole covvie division cutting us off from base at this moment.

"Have you heard of any covvie movements soldier?" I asked.

"Uhhh, I think I overheard the lieutenant talking to one of the falcon pilots about advancing Covenant a few clicks back."

I nodded and turned to find another soldier that we would take with us. I saw 2 soldiers talking on the side of the road doing nothing really.

"Soldier!" I shouted at no one in particular.

The both turned their heads in surprise that an ODST had called at one of them.

"Yea, you!" I pointed to the one of the left.

He seemed younger and had more time to become a better soldier, he seemed like me before ODST training. He looked even younger than me when I started. Maybe from the inner colonies, he seemed to have no scars on him to represent strength as they had to in the UNSC.

The soldier nodded to his buddy before running towards me. He arrived quickly and gave a quick salute.

"Sir, you requested me?"

"Aye, you'll be spotter for me while we head back to base. The covvies might had cut us off and I need to get back to my unit."

The soldier nodded and put on his helmet before sitting in the front seat. I climbed onto the back of the warthog and slapped the safety off the Vulcan gun on the back before taking a seat. I felt the hog lurch forward and turn around as I headed back to my team.

I managed to take a small nap before I was woken by a massive bump that the hog went over. I groaned as I had landed hard on my ass. I lifted myself up, now barely noticing the fact that I had had plasma burn through my leg and a needle lodge itself inside my arm.

"Sir! I can see some banshees in the distance, about a click out."

"Aye. Floor it. We go in hard take out as many as possible to cause chaos among their ranks so we can get out of there unscathed." I said as I got myself comfortable standing behind the Vulcan anti-aircraft chain-gun.

I steadied myself as the hog lurched forward again with the roar of its engine. We started to go extremely fast, faster than regulation would permit even in a firefight. We felt every single bump as we continued forward.

"Here we go!" I shouted as a banshee turned in our direction.

I aimed the Vulcan gun up level with the banshee and started to fire. I saw as sparks flew off it as bullets ricocheted off, but still the banshee started to rock and a small explosion rocked one of the wings as it dropped out of the sky.

"Nice shooting sir!"

We continued down the road and came across a small village with around 5-6 houses. I expected more covenant movement in the area. We passed the last house that revealed a whole covenant division. We stared in awe, as the movement of troops and vehicles was massive. Elites were shouting orders to grunts flying around on ghosts as they dragged equipment from place to place. Jackals walked around on their awkward looking bird legs, their locations varied from energy charging pods for their rifles to hovering sniper towers. As soon as we heard a small grunt squeal as his perimeter job came to an end when the hog's tire crushed it's tiny head, the whole entire division turned to find us speeding past. I turned the gun and pulled the trigger as we passed by quickly. The bullets flew out of the gun at amazing speed as they connected with grunts, jackals and elites. I saw a group of ghosts that the grunts had left to charge up and adjusted my aim as best I could at these types of speeds, to the energy canisters or whatever ONI had named them. After a few round connected with the canister the whole entire group of ghosts went up in purple flames and a hint of blue. The soldier in the front seat started to open fire with his MA5 not really hitting anything but it added to the shock of the covenant.

As quickly as we had seen the covenant we were out of view as we passed through another small town. I felt my muscles relax and a slouched my shoulders with exhaustion, I was getting to old for this shit. A bullet shell fell off from its hold in a small place in my helmet's visor.

"Sir, are you okay?" asked the Lance Corporal.

"Yea, just the shoulder." I lied.

My body, although trained, seemed to be strained and tired. My mind was still grasping at my sniping episode where I lost control. I needed time to sort myself out, yet I was still on the front fighting whole divisions with nothing but a warthog. ODSTs and Rangers might be the most physically strong, but our minds cannot process everything making us better soldiers. I looked at the boy sitting in the front seat with his weapon raised and his eyes scanning for his first covvie kill. His mind was clean of bloodshed and death, to us soldiers he was pure. Wait, why was I talking about bloodshed, I had never lost a friend; I hadn't even seen a UNSC soldier die. I felt bad as I realized I thought higher of myself than I should have been doing. I saw myself as a combat veteran, but the truth is that I could end up like another statistic of dead soldiers that lived up to nothing.

"What are your names?" I asked.

"James. Sir" The young soldier replied.

The Lance Corporal was hesitant about telling his name to me. He seemed to be worried about it.

"I would rather not, Sir." He finally said.

"Why's that?" I asked again.

"If you want to mention us to command for ODST training I don't want to join." He said. "I joined the army because I hate blood, war, and fighting. Yet I was told to sign up and so I did, the army was barely in combat so it seemed like the perfect match for me." He finished.

I nodded to the back of his head. He understood the silence even if he didn't see the nod. The young soldier beside him looked excited and worried at the same time, like a child trying something illegal with his friends for the first time.

"Are you really going to recommend us for ODSTs?" asked James.

I didn't really think about it. I don't think I even have the reputation to recommend.

"No, I just wanted to know your names."

James nodded. Now all three of us were sitting there awkwardly as the warthog cruised through the village. The LC had slowed down as we were passing through the village and he seemed on edge after that engagement. I felt that if these men were going to die someone would at least remember them.

"So James tell me about yourself."

"Well there's not much to tell. I'm from Earth, my parents are working in government."

"You ever fucked?"

James flinched a bit at that questioned. I knew that I had brought that question along quiet quickly, but I didn't expect to survive for long anyway at the rate of my combat. Maybe he was gay or something but I don't think that was it, I think he was still too young to even be thinking about it.

"Uhhhhh, no, not yet Sir." He replied. "Why do you ask?"

I didn't know why I asked. "I was just wondering, trying to get to know you and all. If reports are as bad as people say then we might be together for a long time." I said. "Hell we might even be the last in our units by the time this is over." I joked.

James didn't see this as a joke and looked sad as he thought of his unit. I knew I had brought it down on him hard but things like that tended to happen on Harvest, whole units getting wiped out in matter of hours.

"Hey I was joking. There is a reason people don't like ODSTs, our dark humor." I tried lighting the mood.

"Haha, I don't think I want to be am ODST then." James told me.

The LC in the driver seat looked uncomfortable with the conversation. We found that the small village that we had entered was actually a small city and we found ourselves turning time after time again to avoid blockades. I noticed the LC's shirt pull down to the side when he turned the car; there was a long scar across his upper back. It wasn't made by anything human; it was a plasma burn scar. This guy wasn't just some army guy who joined through pressure and he had defiantly seen combat. I saw a patch of ink on the other side of his back as he took another turn, I made out 3 letters: _Ran. _

This guy was a Ranger, a motherfucking Ranger. The Army equivalent of the ODST but much less funded and they didn't have as much armour. I had one question hovering in the back of my head, why?

The LC made another turn showing more of the tattoo. I could now see underneath all his ranks that he had past through. I saw every single rank marked down in columns of 5 all the way to lieutenant.

"Why did you leave? Sir." I asked.

The Lieutenant slammed on the brakes and turned to me quickly, anger rushing through his face with his fists curled into ball by his sides. "What the fuck did you just say to me ODST?" He grunted.

James had been thrown forward by the brakes and was recovering from his helmet turning and blocking his vision. I on the other hand was prepared for a reaction and had braced myself before the question.

"I know." I told him.

"How?" He jumped out of the hog.

"Your tattoo, on your right shoulder plate. I saw the plasma scar first that told me something was wrong with your story."

He seemed to calm down a bit after walking around. I stood up and hopped off the back of the hog. James was still getting his senses back but was still amiss of why we stopped.

"Fuck. I knew this would happen." The Lieutenant mumbled.

"You're AWOL, aren't you?" Sir." I asked.

He sat on the ground, looked up at me and nodded. His eyes now drifted off somewhere like he was remembering something. He stayed like this for a minute or two before his face started to move. First his lips frowned and then his eyebrows dipped like he was angry then his face turned into rage. He opened his mouth a roared at the top of his voice. He stopped roaring clutching a non-existing body in his hands. A tear formed at the edge of one of his eyes before grabbing onto his left shoulder plate to where his scar was, his eyes opened wide in pain and he grunted loudly several times.

"What the fuck just happened?" I asked the now motionless Lieutenant.

He stayed silent for several seconds. "My life as a Ranger."

The Lieutenant got up and walked over to the driver seat of the hog getting back in. I decided not to ask any more questions for the time being so he didn't have an episode on the road while driving. I hopped on the back my legs hanging off the edge as the hog lurched forward.

The needle went straight through his head. Blood splatted all over the windscreen and James's body fell limp on the Lieutenant's shoulder. My muscles didn't go tense and I didn't prepare for impact as the Lance Corporal slammed his foot on the breaks and turned the wheel frantically. The rear of the warthog spun out and around throwing me off and onto the ground.

I hit the ground hard, rolling before smashing into a corner of a house. Smoke and dust hovered in the air. My armour had saved me from most of the damage but I could still feel the bruises the impact had left me. My ears rang as I lifted my self up slowly, the world was spinning and I could see a crack down the side of my visor. My HUD worked fine but it was sitting there in the corner of my eye. I stood before falling, my HUD lit up detecting a broken leg. I started to crawl-walk as fast as I could. I heard shouting coming from the car, I fastened my pace and grabbed onto the end of the hog. I dragged my body as fast as I could over to where the front seat was. Blood had pooled on the seat and was now dripping onto the ground. I slipped and my helmet slid against the blood, my visor was covered in it. I wiped some off with my hand before reaching for James's body.

"James! James!" His face was pale, drained of blood.

I pulled him out of the hog and placed him on his side, blood poured out of his mouth. I rolled onto his back ripping open his thin standard army body armour and placed my hand on his chest. I pushed 4 times like I was taught in med training. I was panicking franticly pushing down on his chest in the middle of the street.

"Goddamn James! Wake the fuck up mate! Please wake the fuck up!" I screamed.

I took off my helmet to get a better view without the blood covering my eyes. Blood was now coming out of his mouth because I was pushing hard enough to break his ribs and pierce his lungs.

"James! Come on buddy!" I screamed.

I felt someone grab we from behind putting me in a headlock, forcing me to release my hold on James. I started to throw punches wildly behind me. The person tightened his grasp causing me to fall short of breath as his arm was around my next.

I stopped fighting. There was no point. James was dead, the kid that could have been my best friend now lay with hole in his head and mouth trickling out of his mouth eyes still wide open gazing at the sky. He was the first human that I see die, and he was so young, too young.

I looked up at my abductor. I expected to see the Lieutenant but I saw Ben. I fell limp and stopped fighting his hold. He let go of me and helped me up. I had actually hit the corner of the wall with my exposed calf cracking the bio-foam and now parts of it were falling off.

"Inside now." Ben told me as he walked towards one of the building.

I quickly followed before turning around and running back towards the hog to grab my rifle. I then suddenly realized that the Lieutenant had been driving but his body was nowhere to be seen.

"Drastly! Over here!" Ben shouted from a doorway.

I jogged carrying my rifle. Nothing on my armour moved because I had no clips left and my bag was empty of bullets. I felt empty and exposed with no ammo. I slowed to a walk as I entered the building. I felt different like something was gone from my life, I felt like I could never look another soldier in the eye without thinking of his death I could never look in the mirror again if I was the one in the front seat. I shrugged these feeling away and closed the door behind me.

I walked up a flight of stairs to find Ben hovering over a cooker stove. There were multiple sleeping mattresses on the floor. I looked at Ben gleamingly as if the whole team was here with him including Vlad. He shook his head with a grim face before looking down back at the pot on the cooker.

From another room walked in a soldier that I didn't recognize at all. His armour told me he was a marine, his face was covered in dust and grime telling me that he had been in the field a while. He looked at me for a bit, sizing me up before giving me a respectful nod and walking into another room.

"Who are these guys?" I asked, sitting against a wall.

Ben stood up not even flanking at me.

"Gerald! Go get that hog outside and take it round back! We'll need it for evac!" He shouted.

I heard a movement of a chair and then feet before the door opened and another marine came running out pass me, down the stairs, out the door with a slam.

"Where's Vlad." Ben spat with venom.

"He left me, when I got this." Pointing at my calf.

He now nodded and relaxing with his attitude towards me a bit, he now lent back against the back opposite me. He looked exhausted and hurt. Several parts of his armour had been ripped off from his arms and legs and there was a large burn mark on his forearm armour piece that had been filled with bio-foam.

"What happened?" I gestured to his arm.

He looked at it and chuckled a bit. "I got this about 2 days ago. I was fighting with a Marine unit with Ferdinand. Ferdinand went to flank the covvies with 2 marines; the marines came back claiming that Ferdinand had just disappeared."

"The others? Where are they? Off planet?" I asked.

He shook his head. His eyes looked desperate. "Arthur and Ferd were with me when we were deployed. Arthur was recalled for another mission; Ferd and I were told to take a marine squad into this city to root out a Wraith position. We managed to take out the Wraiths with little casualties. Then while we were working our way home we bumped into a scout group of ghosts that were leading a covvie company. We engaged them and then the whole covenant company came down on us. We fell back, Ferdi disappeared and now the marines went from 8 to 4 men and we are held up here."

I nodded knowing not to say anything. Ferdinand had disappeared and Vladimir had run off into the mountains with no ammo for anything but his pistol. This whole thing was a mess, and the other men in my ODST squad the ones I don't know, what about them?

_Hey guys, sorry if my work is getting sloppier than it already is, I just haven't had the motivation to work on this lately._

_Also give some feedback to improve the story!_

_SpartanHoplite_


	7. Ben Huntington

I stood on the roof of the half collapsed building, the other half was 7 stories below me smashed to bits blocking off one of the main roads leading through the city.

I had been here for 2 days now and nothing had happened. No firefights, to patrols, no nothing. We had just sat and watched the roads for 2 days. Some collapsed buildings had landed on another building creating a bridge. We had used these bridges to travel the rooftops watching for Covenant.

Coming across one of the bridges now was Luke. Luke was one of the Marines that were in the squad. He was around 20 and had seen more combat than me and I respected that. Marines didn't seem like they had seen a lot of combat, as they are usually 3rd or 4th replacements. Luke was different; he had survived a pelican crash on Circinius IV and had to travel 50 km with a broken foot and another soldier slung over his shoulder. He had been awarded the Gold Star for his actions and then was quickly redeployed here on Harvest. He had been here for 6 months now, he was originally going to stay for 4 months before his ship was pulling out but it was destroyed while still loading troops. Luke was one of the very last of his whole unit.

He walked towards me his long brown hair sprawled from a night of sleeping. His green eyes had seen much but today they seemed happy.

"You ok mate? You seem happy." I joked as his stepped down the rubble onto the rooftop.

"I think some longswords saw us last night. We could be going home!" He said excited.

I nodded at him awkwardly; he didn't have a home now. He knew what I was thinking and dropped his head nodding.

"I know, I know. I can't really say I'm going home." He looked up at me. "But hey, I'm doing an ODST course and then being redeployed." He smiled.

It was one of the first times I had seen him smile. He looked so happy.

"Hey that's great!" I said opening my arms. "We might even fight together again some day." I said hugging him.

"Thanks man!" He said accepting the embrace.

There were footsteps coming from the stairwell behind me. We released each other and turned to see who it was. There stood a Marine who I hadn't bothered to remember his name.

He was one of those 3rd, 4th replacements. He was fresh out of boot camp 2 weeks ago, that's what he told us. He had a normal face, no scars, his eyes were innocent not having seen anything yet, still a baby. Well speaking about it I was being quiet a hypocrite, I hadn't seen much. I mean I could boast about my kills, but I hadn't quiet been in a situation where I was shaken. I had been in a life or death situation 3 days ago but even with myself losing control of your body it didn't change me. I had seen... James die, but now after the event I felt it hadn't changed me as much as I thought it would have.

"Corporal Barnes wants you." The Marine told us.

I nodded and walked towards the soldier who stepped out of the way and saluted. I walked down the stairs that were littered with rubble and bullet casings. Lines of purple blood dried down the stairs. There was also a red blood splat on the wall showing that there was a fight for this building.

I reached the 4th floor where the new command post had been set up. Ben Barnes my fellow ODST was sitting as a desk that was riddled with bullet holes with a small amount of papers on it, most of the maps but still the desk job didn't suit him.

"Sir." I said as I walked into the room.

I didn't bother salute because really he was an equal rank as I was. He went to his desk and rested against it.

"What's up on the roofs?" Ben asked leaning back onto his chair.

"No activity, a few on the snipers say they saw Covenant forces pulling back." I said. "Any word from HQ?" I finished.

"None, the Covenant seem to be blocking the whole area off. From we can tell HQ has moved around 100 kilometers back because of some weird Covenant activity." Ben huffed.

"So no evac anytime soon I'm guessing."

"Nope, no evac."

I nodded and stood up. Ben now leaned forward again and looked down at the maps. He seemed different from the last time I saw him before leaving on mission with Vladimir.

I turned and walked back towards the stairs. Had this war changed me? I didn't feel different, I had killed a lot of Covenant but to me they didn't represent something. Yes that one elite had a picture of his family and I still had it in my left breast pocket but they were animals. I had seen James die, which affected me at the time but I got over it rather quickly.

I shook those thoughts out of my head. Right now I needed to help find a way back to HQ or link up with another group because our food and water supply was quickly diminishing.

I walked out onto the half broken roof where I once was and grabbed my rifle from its position overlooking one of the main streets in this city. The gun was still in pristine condition it had battle scratches from all the movement but she had never been hit and I cleaned her daily.

"Corporal! I have some movement over here!" I heard one of the marine snipers call from across the street.

I slung my rifle over my back and jogged over the collapsed building that was serving as a bridge. I arrived to see all the Marine snipers aiming away from the street but off into the grasslands beyond the city boundaries. I moved to the highest-ranking marine who just happened to be a higher rank than I was.

"Sergeant. What can I do for you?" I asked.

The sergeant was looking through a pair of binoculars and was frowning. He didn't move for 5 seconds before looking away from the binoculars.

"Major covvie movement Corporal, we've heard the stories about your sniping so we are going to need you." He told me.

I gestured at the binoculars at that he gave them to me to examine the movement. I looked to the horizon where I saw massive amounts of Covenant converging on one area. I was dumbstruck at why the Covenant would put their forces so tightly packed together out in the open exposed to MAC cannon fire. My question was answered 5 seconds later.

"Holy fucking shit!" I yelled.

A massive Covenant super-carrier dropped through the clouds with an escort of hundreds of banshees and phantoms. The sleek, curvy purple hull spun around as the light shimmered under it. It descended quickly and deployed a massive ramp. I was expecting to see millions of grunts, jackals, and elites pour out of it but instead the Covenant forces started to load up. I realized what was about to happen.

"Get the men down from the roofs now and tell them to grab everything that they can." I told the Sergeant before running off.

I was sprinting now, very intense shit. I nearly fell through a window while running across the bridge before slamming into the wall next to the stairs. I did it to slow me down but only for a bit before I ran down the stairs heading for the 7th floor. I smashed down the makeshift door with my shoulder to the surprise of everyone in the room.

"Matthew! What the fuck are you doing!" Ben yelled standing up with his pistol in his hand.

"No time to explain. We have to leave fucking now!" I yelled at everyone.

All the marines in the room started to franticly pack things into their bags while another marine went out to tell all the others to start packing. Ben took another step closer to me, and looked me dead in the eyes.

"What the fuck, is going on?" He muttered.

I took this as an insult. He was thinking I was challenging his command and Ben loved his Command. He was next in-line for command of the squad and that is a one-way ticket for going from Corporal to Lieutenant with one death. Not wanting to start a fight a stepped back letting him know that I wasn't challenging him.

"Covenant Super-Carrier. They weren't deploying troops, they were picking them up." I let that sink into Ben's mind for a second. "They are about to glass this area Ben. We need to leave now."

Ben now took a step back slowly, taking in all the information I had just told him before nodding, quickly turning around and grabbing all the maps that were sprawled out on his desk.

I now ran off and went to my makeshift room. I hadn't unpacked much since I had arrived as most of my hours were spent roaming the roofs searching for Covenant. I walked into the room and grabbed my bag, it felt empty, as it should had, I had scavenged for bullets before piling up the bodies and managed to pick up around 10 rounds that had fallen out while moving around.

"Drastly!" Ben ran into the room. " The marines have already bolted without us, they went rooftop jumping."

I nodded as I slung my bag over my shoulder and hooked it onto my armour. We climate control was all messed up from the ruptures in my armour caused by the plasma and needler round.

"We still got the hog parked out front right?" I asked as we jogged down the stairs.

"Aye, but she's nearly out of fuel and we can't risk using our water." Ben replied.

"Out of fucking fuel? I traveled like for 2 hours from the convoy and they only travelled for 4 hours because they were air-lifted half the way." I swore.

"Well the LT must have been a little shit then."

"You have no idea." I shook my head. "He was wearing his dress with a ship commendation."

Ben opened the door before looking at me and smirking. "He was wearing dress into a possible battle zone. Amateur."

Throwing his gear into the front seat with a thud, Ben climbed up and moved the gun around to get it oiled up again.

"You know. I once woke up and wore my PT gear into a assault when I was woken up too late to get dressed into my armour."

I laughed as I walked around at got into the driver's seat of the car, which was on the left. I pushed the ignition and the warthog started up instantly like they always did. I put my foot on the acceleration and we drove off. Both of us for a moment forgot that we were supposed to be running from a massive Super-Carrier that was about to glass the area until banshees flew overhead.

"Sons of bitches!" Ben screamed as he fired the gun.

One of the banshees was hit in the wing and veered off course slamming into a building in a ball of purple flames. The other two banshees now realizing they were under fire, turned around and now came back to attack us.

"Nice one you stupid fucker!" I yelled back to Ben as he once again fired from the gun.

I saw a green blob on energy come from underneath one of the banshees. The debris that were littered on the road limited my movement as I tried to avoid the blob. "Fuck!" I swerved hard to the right as the blob of energy hit the place where I would have driven.

"Fire that damn gun Ben!" I yelled.

I put on the handbrake and turned hard allowing Ben to continue firing on the banshees. We were stationary for half a minute before the banshees turned around. I now reversed the hog as fast as I could while Ben continued to fire. Another green blob appeared from underneath one of the banshees. I swore under my breath as I realized I had no room to maneuver. I stopped with a jolt causing empty shell casings to fall down my armour. I hadn't realized it, but I wasn't wearing my helmet well it was too late now.

The green blob of energy skimmed over our heads and exploded behind us. I once again reversed as I saw one of the banshees slam into the ground, tumbling over several times before exploding. The remaining banshee pulled up and flew away from us, probably to get reinforcements. I sighed with relief as now we had time to hide.

"Ben mate you alright!" I shouted back behind me.

"Aye… ehh." He replied with a wiry voice.

"Ben…" I said sternly.

"Just a bit of splash from the fuel rod cannon shot. My back is a bit burnt, I'll be right."

I knew it was probably worse than he would admit, which meant that hiding is out of the question. We needed to get back to HQ quick or Ben wasn't going to make it. I floored the accelerator and we sped off towards the outskirts of the city.

"You have any family?"

"I think my brothers are alive somewhere on a innie planet. My parents, I don't know. You?"

"Haha funny you asked." Ben pulled out a picture. "She's 2 this year. I left 2 days after she was born. She's beautiful isn't she? A lot like my wife." Ben gleamed.

"Haha, she has your nose you know." I smiled.

I handed the picture back and Ben put it in his breast pocket holding his hand there even after he put it away.

"You want to have a family, Drastly?"

"Yea. There was a girl back on Levosia." I paused. "She died during a innie bombing."

"Sorry man must have been hard."

"Yea, I left Levosia for boot camp the next day. I couldn't stand staying there." I choked. "With her memory and all."

"Doesn't matter though. The past is the past… I guess." I stopped. "Where you from anyway?"

"New Carthage."

"Wait, what. Did you say New Carthage?"

"Aye, what about it."

"I thought New Carthage's colonists were Finnish?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean some of us can't be of other descent."

"Beats me."

We sat there in the middle of a river of boulders that provided us some peace of mind as we prepared to sleep. We had dismounted the M41 "Vulcan" from the warthog which I was now using as my primary weapon and had tipped the warthog on it's side to throw off any covvies that might fly over this way looking for us. My bag had been filled with line after line of ammo for the Vulcan and it held surprisingly a lot of ammo for its size. Ben's back had gotten worse in the time that we had taken to get to this point.

Ben was in bad shape as I turned to go to sleep. Neither of us was going to go on watch tonight. We simply didn't care about it. We had a 100 to 1 chance of making it back alive and we wanted a good last night sleep.

I woke expecting to find my self in the middle of a group of covenant preparing to torture and kill us, or as a prisoner of the covenant going to be tortured and killed. Yet I was in the place I was before I had gone to sleep. I was now feeling sharp pains on my calf and shoulder, the bio-foam was breaking down and soon I be feeling a lot of pain.

"Ben, time to go mate." I pushed Ben's body.

For a second I thought he was dead before he started coughing. I sighed with relief Ben wasn't dead. I thought that was a stupid thing to be relieved about but then I remembered that we were at war and during war you happen to be relieved that in the morning your mate isn't dead.

I stood up and picked up the heavy M41 Vulcan and slung my bag full of ammo around my shoulders. I looked like a full on badass ODST right now and without the ODST training I would be on my face dying of the amount of weight that I was carrying.

"Matthew."

I turned around to face Ben who was still lying on the ground with his head turned examining his massive burn on his back. It looked bad really bad. The burn started from just under his shoulder plates and went all the way down to just above his ass, his spine was fine though with the extra armour plating that he had around it but you could still see bits of his spine just under the burnt skin.

"I'm not going to make it. Take my gear, and send my family a message. Tell my daughter that I'm fighting for her and daddy will be home soon. Too my wife… Tell her I'll be missing dinner. " He coughed. "1563 Overgrod Road, Huntington Family."

Ben slumped back onto his back and lay there looking absently into the sky as if he was watching the naval battle above. His face went from pain to blank.

"Ben you fucking cunt. I am not leaving you here." I dropped the M41 and took off the backpack.

I walked over to him and grabbed the spare bio-foam can from his calf and pushed him over. He grunted in pain as I started to spray the worst burnt areas with the bio-foam. The can emptied and his back was a mess of red and white blotches.

"Drastly don't be stupid, we'll never make it. We have 50 kilometres to go and with me on your back we will be glassed."

I took my pistol out of it holster and hit him in the head with the but of the M60 knocking him unconscious. I proceeded to empty the ammo from my bag and fill it with all the bits and pieces that were in Ben's bag like his maps and his personal holo-pad. I took his MA5 and all his ammo filling my pouches to the brim. I ripped off my right shoulder plate, which was irritating my wound and threw it to the ground.

"Let's go buddy." I said to the unconscious Ben before picking him up and placing him on top of my shoulders.

I set off leaving an empty can of bio-foam, a M41 Vulcan and my shoulder guard behind. I looked to the east to where the sun was rising and headed along the road heading towards it. It was time for us to go home.

The needle rounds slammed into the wall just as I sprinting into the house. They exploded in a shower of concrete. Ben was still unconscious in the corner where I had left him 5 minutes ago.

I slammed another mag into Ben's MA5 and peaked around the corner. I managed to see the group of grunts waddle towards me before a plasma round slammed into the wall next to my head. I pulled back into the house and slid down the wall heavily breathing from the near death experience. I took off my helmet to inspect for plasma burning and found that there were some scars on the top from splash damage. The plasma had stopped burning through though.

I made for the roof by climbing stairs and then a ladder through a hatch. I crawled along the roof careful not to get spotted by the jackals. I reached the corner of the square building and peaked over the top seeing the grunts nervously moving towards the doorway where I once was.

I checked that there was a round it the chamber before lifting myself onto one knee and firing down on the grunts below. I felt the recoil as every shot fired and continued to force the gun down to the targets after every shot. It happened in slow motion for me, I saw the grunts squeal and fall one by one. My eyes closed and opened again as I flinched from the recoil.

As quickly as I had started firing I was down on my stomach reloading and avoiding shots. I now crawled back to the ladder and climbed all the way down to where Ben still lay unconscious. What was I going to do?

I went to the door and sprayed about half the mag outside to fend off any advancing elites while I thought of a plan.

I looked out all the windows and one intrigued me. There was a fast flowing river behind the house that was heading east towards where the sun was. It was the only chance of survival.

I walked over to where Ben lay and unclipped his helmet from his belt and put it on his head. I then sealed it by connecting it with his under-armour. I did the same with mine. I slung the MA5 onto my back and grabbed Ben now dragging him instead of carrying him. I ran out the door and around the corner as fast as I could while limping from my calf burn. Shots landed all around us and we passed behind the house, I felt a sting of pain in my Achilles heel but I didn't bother to look, as I dragged Ben down a slope towards the river.

Now 100 metres away I could here the deep voiced shouts of an elite as it directed the jackals to push forward to chase us. We were now once again under fire.

"Fucking, fuck! You fucking owe me for this you fucking cunt bag!" I screamed at the still unconscious Ben.

I picked up Ben and threw him into the rapids and jumped in after him. I was immediately pushed down and thrown about like I was a feather. I felt my body smash into rock after rock. My helmet did its job and provided air for me while I was under water. I though everything was going all right until my helmet hit a rock and knocked me out.

My body felt damp. I opened my eyes; there was a crack on the right side of my visor though all the tings on my HUD worked fine. I checked my body any wounds when I realized something. Ben.

I stood up and turned to face down river looking out to try and see if I could see him. I used my helmets built in binoculars to try and spot him but all I saw was the movement of blue water smashing into rocks.

I collapsed onto the floor and just sat there. Ben was gone. I tried to remember what he had told me. 1563 Overgrod Road, Huntington Family. His little girl, should I send her letters to pretend to be here father? Should I tell her that her father was dead?

"Ben… Oh Ben… Why…"

"Why what mate?"

I turned around to see Ben standing there, slouched over in pain, smiling. He had taken his helmet off and I could see that fucking English ginger face of his. I stood up and charged and his and punched in the face. His nose started to bleed a small bit.

"That's for making me nearly die for you asshole." I said before laughing.

"Well I did say you could leave me didn't I?" He laughed back holding onto his nose.

We closed in and gave each other a hug, well a manly hug. You know those one handed ones with a body check. I slapped him on the shoulder and he winced in pain.

"Pussy." I said before walking off.

"You fucking try having you back burnt of you cunt." Ben replied.

"I'll pass."

We both laughed as Ben put his helmet on and we headed down along the riverbank to the east.

The sun had reached midday point and we still had about another 2 hours of walking at this speed. We had considered jumping into the river again until we realized it turned south away from where we wanted to go.

Ben had begun to be more sluggish the more we walked. He constantly refused to rest even though we probably weren't even being pursued by the Covenant.

I had given Ben his MA5 when he realized I had taken it and now all I had slung around my back was my rifle. The gun was heavy and useless, as I had absolutely no ammo for it. Well that wasn't true but I nearly had no ammo for it.

"You think Vlad made it?" Ben asked me.

I shrugged. "Don't know, maybe. He had a full day head start on me and that means he didn't have Covenant trying to kill his ass half the time. So he is probably back at camp fucking Lieutenant Hughes the bastard."

Ben laughed even though it caused him pain. "Both of you have good luck getting with Hughes, she's got the goings with Ferdi. Well that is if he's still alive." He paused. "Then you have a chance aye?" He chuckled weakly trying to bring light to the conversation.

We both stopped talking and started to think how many members of our squad were dead. I only knew a few of them, Ferdinand, Vladimir, Ben, and Arthur. I'm sure I learnt the others names but I have completely forgotten.

We continued to walk for another hour becoming slower and slower as Ben's condition became worse and worse. He stumbled a few times and just blamed it on tripping on a rock or something, but we both knew that he might not make it.

"Mate, you need to rest." I told him.

"Drastly, for the thousandth time. Fuck off." He replied.

I chuckled a bit at his answer. I don't know why but I just suddenly found it funny.

My Achilles heel started hurting again and a stopped to check it out. Ben used this time to slump of the ground, he knew that it was my choice to stop so his bloody English pride was still intact and all. I pulled off my boot and found that my Achilles heel armour had a hole blown into it. I could now clearly I found that half of a needler round had lodged itself inside my foot. The other half must have been broken off when I was tumbling through the river.

I put my boot back on and clipped it on to my calf amour.

"Ben, let's go." I said standing up and walking away.

Ben lay where he was not making a sound. For a second I thought he had gone to sleep until I checked his vitals on my HUD.

"Ben!"

_Hey guys I hope you have been enjoying the story so far. I apologise for the long waits between the chapters as I often do parts of the story each day and get side-tracked._

_I am also worried about some of my writing, I know its a dick move to ask for reviews but I really need them guys. Tell me what I'm doing well and what I need to improve on along with what you want to see happen more in the story. Nothing is planned out for this, everything I write just comes to my head while I'm writing in bed at midnight like right now._

_Anyone cheers for those people that have stayed on with me all the way and thank you for your support._

SpartanHoplite


	8. Nearly Home

_Hey guys sorry about the long time between chapter uploads. It's just the fact that I have been traveling a lot lately with my school and all._

_Cheers_

_SpartanHoplite_

Blood dripped down my face. Sweat started to drench my back. My back strained by the weight. My mind was dead. I had lost all feeling in my legs but they just kept on moving forward. Vision blurred I didn't stop.

In the distance I could see the outlines of human bodies. I didn't stop to rest. I knew I needed to get to them as soon as possible.

Ben moved around on my shoulders as I ran through the vast fields that surrounded this area. His back was bleeding through the bio-foam down my back and face.

"Hang in there you English bastard!" I yelled at his unconscious body.

Everything seemed to be going in slow motion for me. I could feel every drop of sweat fall off my face. My legs seemed to be moving in sync with the world. I drew slowly closer to the constantly moving shadows of men.

I ran for several more minutes before I reached a bridge with the men on the other side. Along with them were a scorpion tank and 2 warthogs. I made for the closest warthog.

"Stop! Hell Jumper, this is a restricted area! State your intentions!" Boomed one of the soldiers over a loud speaker.

I didn't stop to reply. My legs kept on moving faster as I moved towards the warthog.

"ODST! Stop now or we will fire upon you!" The voice boomed again.

I started to sprint faster as feeling started to return to my legs and my calf began burning with pain. My face was scrunched up and I was grunting with every step.

I heard a shot and then a wiz as I bullet passed over my head. They had fired a warning shot. What ever place this was it had to have something to do with ONI if they were firing on human soldiers.

"Friendly!" I shouted as loud as I could.

Obviously I didn't shout loud enough when I bullet went straight through my wounded shoulder. I dropped to one knee still balancing Ben on my back. I screamed in pain as I lifted my body up and began to cross the bridge. The men stood in disbelief of my determination.

"Someone help him!" I heard a soldier call.

"You will do no such thing soldier!" The voice boomed again.

I expected another shot to come as I moved forward, but none came. I was nearly at the warthog when I heard another gunshot. My exposed calf had a hole torn through it and I fell over.

"Soldier! Kill him and his comrade!" The voice boomed.

I lay on the ground, gasping for air as my body went into shock. I was losing too much blood and my vitals were all over the place. I place a hand on the ground and pushed myself up with my good arm. I heard shouting behind me but it was drowned out by the sound of my heart beating.

I saw Ben lying on the floor, his vitals failing on the cracked side of my HUD. I grabbed his body in agony before falling to the floor again on my back. I watched as a man stood over Ben's limp body and drew his pistol. I didn't watch as I heard a shot. I gave up and my mind went black.

I woke in a bright room. My eyes took their time to adjust to the brightness before I inspected where I was. The room was bare and I knew I was in an ONI facility then and there when I smelt the disinfectant that would have been used for after the last occupant of this room ended his usefulness.

I lifted my head and looked down at my body. My wounds had only been bio-foamed to prevent bleeding and numbed my pain. I knew that they weren't going to waste time and resources on a single ODST.

I wasn't tied to the table, which actually surprised me, as ONI liked to have little resistance when cutting off soldiers' balls. I got up off the table and stood up on the ground.

"Corporal Matthew Drastly." Said a voice.

I turned my head to find the source of the voice but to no avail. The room had no interrogation window thingy that I could see and there were no speakers that were visible.

"Enlisted age 18. Age 19. Enlisted into Army, trained ODST. Rank Corporal. Parents on Levosia status unknown. Brother's location unknown suspected high-ranking rebel ground troops."

I began to feel dizzy, I had lost blood and they hadn't replaced it. I stumbled a bit as I attempted to get back onto the metal table I had once been lying on. I tripped falling to the ground.

"He doesn't seem like an ODST." I heard a voice whisper over the speaker. They must have forgotten to turn it off. "He seems too small and frail."

I had had enough already and this was only their first insult.

"Well fucking come out here so I can show you who's frail dipshit!" I screamed.

I lifted myself from the floor and leaned against the metal table. The world around me began to spin. I now lifted myself successfully onto the table and lay down. Things didn't get better as I passed out again.

I heard yelling from within my dreams. I could tell I had been moved from the metal table in the bare room because I felt a drifting feeling not so long ago.

"Clear!" I heard one o the voices yell.

"We need more blood! Also grab the fucking bio-foam! We need to fix this quick so we have more time to save this ODST bastard!" Another yelled obviously the leader.

At first I thought I was in a battle zone. Then I realized that there wouldn't be a hospital with bright lights in a battle zone. Well not on Harvest at least.

"We're losing him! Get more blood goddamnit! Fuck the bio-foam is failing!" I heard the leader's voice scream.

The lights were no closer and brighter than they were before. I'm dying I thought. My wounds must have been worse than I thought. I should have stayed in that village and gotten more help from that medic. Well then again that whole entire army company that they sent would probably have been glassed by now, poor bastards.

"That's it. We lost him. He's gone. Nothing we can do." I heard a voice.

"Fuck!" Screamed the leader before I heard something smash.

There was a silence for a couple of seconds before I realized what had happened. Ben.

"Ben!" I screamed as I jumped up from my bed.

All the medical staff in the room recoiled in shock so falling onto the ground. I looked to my right to see a pool of blood on the floor and then a soldier's limp body on top of an operating table. I ripped off all the medical equipment that was attached to me and got off my bed.

"Ben! No, please!" I screamed as I have a massive adrenaline rush of sadness and despair.

I moved quickly the soldier's bed. It wasn't Ben. That means he might be alive I felt a rush of adrenaline and turned around and cheered a small bit. I would look bad me cheering next to a dead body, but it wasn't Ben! It I felt a jab hit my shoulder. I knew that the doctors were putting me out because of my condition. Yet my body fought back for longer than it should have and I was jabbed again before my body gave way to the drugs.

"You have 167 confirmed kills? 3 of them Ultras?"

"Yes."

"With which weapon did you kill that many elites?"

"SRS-98 Sniper Rifle."

"Where did you get this Sniper Rifle? They are not standard issue."

"UNSC Hummingbird's armory."

"Why were you given this rare weapon instead of the standard issue SRS-99?"

"I am related to its previous owner."

Upon hearing this, the man stood up and left the room in a hurry leaving me to stare off into space, thinking of Ben. 1563 Overgrod Road, Huntington Family that might be my next stop if ONI allows me to leave here without a bullet in my head.

I remembered the night with Ben when we sat in the middle of the field of rocks. Tending out injuries he told me about his family, and I felt special for it. He had told me, even though he I was the only person around him at the time. He could have told Ferdinand about so that in the case that Ben did die. Wait, Ferdinand. He might as well be dead too. Did he have a family? Was there another address, another daughter to tell her Daddy would be home soon while actually her dad was nothing but molten glass because there were too many dead bodies to pick up from the battlefield. I felt rage swell through me, I wanted to leave and find my friends, whether ONI will help me or not.

I stood up from my seat, the metal chair falling over with a smash.

"What the fuck do you want from me?" I screamed my arms raised. "If you're going to kill me, fucking do it already you group of fucking shits!"

I started to kick at the massive solid metal door.

"All you guys ever do is hamper the fucking war effort for the men on the frontlines! You may be winning your war with your mythical fucking alien fucking cunt Spartans! But out there on the frontlines! We are the reason those Spartans win!" My kicking broke the lock on the door, which was surprising.

I checked to see if they opened it from the outside but the lock was still stuck in the wall as I pushed open the door.

The two ONI private security guards that were on watch stood dumbstruck as a 6ft 6 (I grew during training) ODST burst out of a high security room, they backed off a bit. One reached for his M6C that was in its holster on his waist. He was around 5ft 7 which was tiny by todays standards, I reached for him. He threw a punch, which I dodged and sent my own punch back slamming into his face. I grabbed the M6C out of its holster and turned aiming it at the other guard who had fumbled with his.

"Drop the fucking weapon!" I yelled as he tried to pick it up.

The guard dropped it as raised his hands as I ran up to him and punched him in the face and he fell to the floor unconscious. I continued down the corridor gun ready for the next guard.

A minute later I heard an alarm. Someone realized I was gone. There were no cameras in the room because ONI wanted to keep their interrogations as leak-free as possible. I heard the running of combat boot against the concrete floor and the clatter of equipment.

I came to a corner and peaked around to see the guards actually running away from me. Also the men weren't guards, they were Army.

"There he is!" I heard from behind me.

I turned to now see three guards with guns raised running towards me. They had their weapons still in their holsters for some reason. I raised my weapons and they stopped surprised as if they didn't have orders to contain me and bring me back to the interrogation room.

"Sir, the Major asked to see you." One of them told me hands raised.

My head cocked to the side like a dog, confused. The Major, who was the Maj…

Sydney. The man who started me on my journey here and I hated him for it.

The 3 guards still on edge about something guided me through the base towards the Major. I was prepared to beat the shit out of the Major if I didn't value my life so much.

"Right in here, sir." One of the guards told me before the group of them ran down the corridor off to do something else.

I didn't bother knocking on the door and instead just pushed the door opened and walked in. I found myself in the middle of a War Room. There were technicians moving around and other staff manning the equipment. In the middle was a large holographic table with the overlay of what seemed to be the exterior of the ONI base. It was standard ONI, built into the side of a mountain and most of the facility was underground. But the front of the base, which was the part that was exposed, had large amounts of defense and equipment stationed around it. I realized what was happening, the Covenant had caught up.

"Corporal Drastly!" I heard the German accent and knew who it was straight away.

"Major." I replied.

I heard the sound of an electric motor. I turned to my right to find the Major sitting gin a wheelchair. I looked at it questionably.

"Covenant shot my pelican on the way in. Several needler rounds went into my leg. Not enough to cause an explosion, but still serious." He told me as he lifted his pant leg showing the holes in his that had been stitched back together.

I lifted mine and showed an even worse wound, which had been caused by the plasma round almost 9 days ago I think. The Major looked and it while I took off my shoe to show a needler hole in my Achilles heel. Several people in the room turned to find out what the whole deal was about. The Major looked at my wounds and then looked at his wheelchair and frowned. I hadn't finished demolishing the Major's reputation as a tiny group of technicians stopped and looked at my wounds. I slid my shoulder sleeve down on my ONI shirt showing a scar from the early needler round.

"These two." I pointed at my shoulder and calf. "Untreated for 6 days except bio-foam. This one." I pointed at my heel. "Much more recent, I was actually here when the bio-foam wore off, your ever friendly ONI staff refused to treat it."

The whole room seemed to have slowed down as they sensed the tension between the Major and I.

"Sir a pelican is waiting for you on the other side of the mountain." A soldier told the Major before exiting the room escaping a thrashing.

"Corporal, I just wanted to tell you that although you have put two guards in bed for a while and breaking out of an ONI facility would result in a very severe court-martial. Yet once again because of your gene's we are letting you off, and also I pulled a few favors." The major finished feeling proud about himself. He looked at me and waited for a thank you.

I turned to leave the room. Before I felt someone grab my arm. I expected it to be the major but as I turned I saw Ben.

"Ben?" I asked.

He nodded. Turning around he lifted his shirt to show a mass of bandages slung around his back. You could see some of them had spots of blood on them from his destroyed back.

"My lungs." Ben coughed.

I nodded understanding that he couldn't speak well.

Ben then nodded over to the other side of the room where 2 high ranked officials stood over a holo-table staring at me. I looked at them and one gestured for me to join them.

I walked over to the table where the men stood. They didn't say a word to me, just stared. One of the men gestured to his assistant who proceeded to reset the holo-table to its original setting, which was a perfectly clear ONI base.

"Corporal, if you would kindly watch and listen carefully to this."

The assistant pressed another button and the hologram started moving forward in time that was shown by a clock on the bottom right hand side of the hologram.

"As you can see here, there has been a steady build up in defensive structures along the front of the base here." He pointed at a position about 50 km from the entrance to the ONI base.

I watched as trench networks and bunkers were set up along with the arrival of 2 divisions worth of troops, which were both army and marine by the looks. None of the troops that arrived looked like they had just arrived in system. I know that there isn't that much detail on a hologram but just how the way that they were walking showed that they weren't in a rush to go off and fight again.

"With the arrival of all these troops we sent out men to find out why they were gathering here and we found out that we are the only UNSC strong point in the whole entire sector, and let me tell you this sector is pretty big." The assistant told me. "Now I know that there would be pockets of resistance all over the sector in cities and towns but that area is getting glassed quick. The navy is helping either as it has it's own problems."

"Won't they just glass here as well?" I asked.

"No. But that information is classified." Said one of the high-ranking officials. It was the first time either of them had talked.

I nodded and looked back at the assistant who proceeded with the hologram.

"Around about 3 am this morning we got a evacuation call from Admiral Preston Cole saying that several Covenant ships had dropped down into orbit above us. Now for classified reasons the ONI base and the surrounding area is safe but we are expecting the full force of the Covenant land forces to be attacking us."

The hologram no started to show advancing Covenant forces.

"Now, there have been Covenant scouts in the area but the rest of the hologram is pure calculation. We have no idea where they will attack or when but using data from previous engagements we have predicting what the Covenant might do."

"So what happens if they do something different and they fuck you over because of your bullshit way of setting up a defense?" I turned to the officials. "No offence but your tactics are out of date and suck dick."

The whole room was shocked at the language I used except for Ben and the Major who expected the language to come from a "battle-hardened" ODST. I say battle hardened because technically I have been injured several times and fought in several skirmishes.

"We didn't devise this plan. We are merely teachers." Said the same official nodding at the assistant.

I looked at the assistant now and saw his face red with anger and his hands clutched into fists.

"If you are going to punch me buttercups get on with it." I taunted.

Several people in the room laughed at the statement, which sent the assistant into a rage. He screamed and contemplated punching an ODST but chose against it and left the room instead.

"Seeing as we lost our tactician. Why don't you enlighten us on your thoughts Corporal." I suspected a hint of sarcasm in his voice but played along.

Nodding I went around to the control panel and reset the hologram. Now showing just the ONI base and the already in place defensive measures.

"Look. Your "assistant" was prepared for Wraiths firing and just constant pushing by the Covenant forces. So now there is just a straight line of defense. No flexibility." I pointed at the hologram. "Now what if the Covenant changes their tactics which has been known to happen. And we end up with an army behind our lines, which contain all of the military force stationed at this ONI base." I finished. The officials nodding, agreeing with my thoughts

I started to play with the hologram adding Covenant vehicles and troops as well as moving around the whole entire army of the UNSC that was stationed here.

I moved away revealing my tactic. Architects were hired to design ONI bases and this one had decided to add a massive over-hang, which just happen to be made out of a mixture of Titanium-A and concrete.

The officials leaned in as I began to talk again. "Now if you see here. We have pockets of our men that will give one hell of a fight; meanwhile we use the landmarks to provide us a tactical advantage." I pointed at a lake in-between 2 pockets of men. "This lake can't be crossed by Covenant infantry, but I know, their vehicles can hover across. That is why the pockets are given large amounts of ammunition and weapons so they can hold out against anything. Also seeing as these two pockets are closest to the main defense line at the front door of the ONI base, I say we give them mounted gauss canons. That way when vehicles try and cross they get hit from the side." I swallowed the spit that had been forming in my mouth from talking so much as the officials started to nod in approval.

"Now of course these pockets are going to be far out from the main line. That is why there are trench lines that run in between everything. Now the Covenant can try to entre the trenches, which is why check points will be placed to make sure that positions don't get over run from our own trenches. This also provides a retreat route if needed." One of the officials raised his hand."

"Yes?"

"Have you received any training at a academy by any chance Corporal?" He asked.

"No sir."

"Then how do you have a massive understanding of UNSC tactics and hardware, coming out of basic training only a couple of weeks ago?"

I realized where they were going with this. They wanted to see if I had been spying on higher ranking officers and feeding information to the Covenant. It had been happening over the years and now since the war had started it was getting worse with offers of a safe-haven from the Covenant being offered to anyone who provides tactical information.

"My brothers, sir."

"Your brothers?" The officials looked at each other. "Aren't they Insurgents? High ranking insurgents at that."

"Yes but when I was younger they used to teach me about tactics in a hope that one day I would join them, fighting for the innies. Well I didn't join and now I'm here helping you. So you can either arrest me or I can carry on?" I defended.

The people in the room weren't used to outbursts from ODST's and higher authority being challenged and they all went quite in waiting for the response from the officials.

"Carry on then." One of them said.

I gave them both a look before I continued talking.

"Anyway. The main reason the main defense line is so close to the front door is because of the overhang." I pointed at the ONI building. "That overhang will deny the use of long range Wraiths and the use of banshees and phantoms will be limited as they will be vulnerable so close to the ground. So the Covenant will be forced to come straight at us in a tight space that we have packed with gun and explosives. Also just incase seeing as ONI is unpredictable. C-12 will be placed on the overhang so that if we are pushed back then we can block the front door."

I got up from leaning over the table and nodded at both of the officials who looked pleased and nodded back at me.

"Seems like we hired the wrong man. We should have hired you Corporal Drastly. We'll put a good word in for you." One of them said shaking my hand.

I shook the other mans hand. "By the way Corporal, we're not ONI. We're HIGHCOM." He told me.

"What's the difference?" I replied.

Both the officials and I had a small chuckle before they left to the other side of the room to conduct the preparations.

I returned to Ben and the Major who hadn't really moved from their positions when I left them. I looked at Ben and he was giving me look.

"What? You're surprised that I had tactical prowess? Asshole, I'm surprised your weak ass survived." I joked.

He punched my shoulder in reply and coughed a bit as he chuckled inside. I turned to the Major who smiled at me. I realized there was more to this man than him sitting behind a desk and sending boys like me off to their deaths. He was still wearing the ODST shoulder pads. They were a much older model than mine, which gave me the thought that he used to be an ODST, maybe as early as the early Insurrection movement?

"Well Corporal. I guess it is time for you to go to the front line and organize your defense." The major joked.

I chuckled a bit at it as his assistant tapped him on his shoulder reminding him of his pelican. He nodded and looked at me again. He now held out his hand, which I shook.

"Just don't leave us behind, sir." I told him as he rolled away out the door.

I looked back at Ben. "Time to get to work then ey Benny?"

"Drastly you're on watch." Muttered one of the marines that I was stationed with.

I got up from my sleeping bag and walked towards the stairs that led to ground level. My watch would be for 2 hours and it was the middle of the night, I was not looking forward to it.

We had spent the last 2 days digging and digging. The whole entire 2 divisions worth of men had been digging and we were making good progress. Our positions were made better than we had expected because we had more time to plan it out. I mean imagine 60,000 people harden men and women working at a defense line. I had been expecting a shabby sleeping area with not much of a bunker looking position. Yet ONI had just been pumping out the materials and we had built a perfect bunker with access to below ground and multiple trenches.

"I'll be waking you up in 2 hours Scott."

"Fuck off wanker." Scott replied turning towards the wall as I climbed the stairs.

I had gotten my helmet repaired but I asked them to keep the marks and the crack on my visor. They told me the visor would work perfectly but I would still see the crack on the outer layer of the visor. The night-vision was working perfectly and I could see all out in front of my position. I shouldn't have really been worrying. There were around 10 more positions dotted around in front of me. Since we were the last position we were sung in between a cliff and the lake.

I smiled. It had been the first proper smile in ages. My mind was speaking gibberish to me. I thought abut everything most of the time. Yet right now this was perfect. I took off my helmet and I could see the moon reflecting off the lake.

1 kilometer away was one of my only friends. Ben was on the position opposite me. Us being the only ODST's in the sector we were being held back to organize the defense. This also confirmed our fears about the death of our squad. We doubted that they would have jumped sectors so quickly without finding each other.

I put my helmet back on. "Ben you there?"

Ben and I had organized that we had the same watch time so we could have a chat every night. We couldn't really socialize with anyone, not until we had been seen by a psyche. Because something was wrong with Ben, even though his lungs were better he didn't talk as much as he used to and my ego was out of control right now. Every time I kill a Covenant, even a grunt I look to the man next to me to see if he was watching.

"Yep. Sorry went for a piss."

"Aight."

There was a silence, a silence that wouldn't have happened if we were or normal selves.

"So, when do you think the attack will come?"

"Tomorrow. Friday tops." Ben replied.

"Nah, tonight. Or early morning."

"Really you think so?"

"Yea I mean the Covenant aren't exactly the most patient people." I told Ben.

"Nah, tomorrow. They will still be trying to get through that massive wall. You know the ONI base AI has been using automated defenses to fuck around with the covvies?"

"50 credits."

"Deal."

The silence once again returned. I looked around at the weapons locker on the wall. ONI had taken my 98 for research or some shit and they told me to stay away from sniping for the next couple of battles. Dickheads.

I sat down in a cheap plastic chair of which ONI had plenty of for interrogations. It was comfortable enough but it felt like it was going to brake under a full armour ODST.

"Matthew. Do you hear that?" I heard Ben ask.

"Ben don't fuck with me mate, I just sat down and I don't want to go shoo off a animal." I replied.

"No. It sounds like gunfire."

I shot up out of my chair and turned up the listening on my helmet. I waited and I could hear the faintest of shots. That would have been the first trench line. The question was why weren't they radioing?

"Ben! Message everyone! The Covenant are moving in Jammers!" I yelled through my helmet.

I saw the first flashes on the horizon. I grabbed a MA5 from the weapons locker and cocked the chamber. The Covenant were in for a hell of a fight.

_Hope you guys are looking forward to a couple of chapters of pure action._

_I know you guys have been waiting for them and here they come._

_"Thats 50 credits Ben."_

_SpartanHoplite_


End file.
